Former federal prosecutor Bill Shipley is representing Roberto Minuta in the second Oath Keepers trial.
Minuta is facing “seditious conspiracy” charges, obstructing Congress charges, and Interfering with members.
The “seditious conspiracy” charge carries up to 20 years.
What did Roberto Minuta do?
According to prosecutors, Minuta and other Oath Keepers got into golf carts and raced toward the US Capitol when they found out people had entered the Capitol. on January 6th.
You can donate to the Jan 6th legal defense here
Shipley gave an update on how the trial is going.
The closing arguments ended on Thursday and the jury is now deliberating.
Shipley said they are “cautiously optimistic” but pointed out that the government did not give the jury an easy way out in this case.
On Thursday this past week we wrapped up closing arguments in the second Oath Keeper trial — my client is Roberto Minuta. The jury deliberated for 5 hours on Thurs, and a half day yesterday — Fridays are normally half days.
All four defense counsel were satisfied with how the presentation of the evidence went, and we’re all cautionsly optimistic. The case was complicated by the fact that most of the direct evidence was about 3rd parties, and the 4 defs were more “tangential” to the OK actions on J6.
The way the Govt charged the case doesn’t give the jury an easy “out” — no minor or “lesser included” offenses were included in the indictment. The only real options for the jury are the “Seditious conspiracy” charges, Obstructing Congress charges, and Interfering with Members.
The first Oath Keeper trial involved 35 trial days of witness testimony. The outcome was not what the Govt expected. This time they trimmed the case back significantly, and we went only 15 trial days. That caught all of us by surprise.
They either decided they overwhelmed the first jury with too much info for them to make sense of it all, or in the second trial they were concerned with the “damage” being done to defense witnesses on cross-exam — and we did a lot — and curtailed their case for that reason.
I’m not at all surprised that there was not a quick verdict as has been the case in many other J6 trials. There are substantive questions about these 4 particular defendants that the jury must sort thru. There are no “smoking gun” videos.
This trial started the week after Thanksgiving with jury selection, and I’m still sitting in a DC Airbnb racking up expenses. I have two more J6 trials — and maybe one SURPRISE appearance in another — between now and March. I might have only 2 weeks back home before 3/22.
I’ve also agreed to get into the case of Jeffrey McKellop, a decorated Army Special Forces Veteran with a particularly difficult case. I’m also in touch with a couple people about the three active duty Marines who were just charged this week.
But I can only do this with the financial support of those of you who find it important that these defendants be able to choose their own counsel. The funds donated to the “January 6 Legal Defense Fund” account on GiveSendGo go 100% to keeping me in these cases.
This is a lean operation — economy flights, mostly cook for myself in rental apartments or grab fast-food to go. Airbnb apt. rentals on a monthly basis can be found for under $2500 a month — much cheaper than hotel rooms. A lot of time away from family but …
The kids think it’s cool that Dad is doing this, and my spouse is 100% supportive for reasons I’ve never spelled out but would make sense if you knew. She’s an Air Force brat–her dad was an AF and ANG pilot for 35 years and she’s worked with Marines and Spec. Forces operators.
So, if you can help, any assistance is greatly appreciated. I don’t seem to have the same “reach” with Twitter as when @elonmusk took over, so RT’s are appreciated to spread the word.
You can donate to the Jan 6th legal defense here
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