A Jan. 6 defendant with a legal strategy of defending himself with conspiracy theories is presenting unique challenges for prosecutors as they prepare for his trial to start this week, The New York Times reports.
Alan Hostetter of San Clemente, California, was 56 when he along with five other California men were arrested in connection with the insurrection.
Hostetter, who briefly served as an Orange County police chief before becoming a yoga instructor, is facing federal charges including conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding, and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted area.
His trial is scheduled to start Thursday.
According to the report, Hostetter’s defense will rely on what he calls “three fundamental pillars” – that the 2020 election was stolen, that he and other Jan. 6 defendants didn’t seek to disrupt the certification of the election, and that the attack on the Capitol was a false flag operation orchestrated by “federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”
Hostetter initially sought to call up to 30 witnesses including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow Jan. 6 defendant Jacob Chansley, who is known as the “QAnon Shaman.”
Although Hostetter eventually withdrew the request, Alan Feuer writes for The Times that “the trial is likely to draw together many of the disparate strands of conspiracy theories that have stubbornly taken root on the right in the two and a half years since the Capitol was attacked.”
Hostetter, who identifies himself in his LinkedIn profile as a “Fakesurrection Truth Teller” isn’t the only Jan. 6 defendant to turn to conspiracies in their defense, but the extent to which Hostetter is leaning into unfounded theories has not yet been seen by the Justice Department in this sprawling case.
Feuer writes that “On Thursday, prosecutors may face their stiffest challenge yet on that front as Alan Hostetter, a former police chief turned yoga instructor from Southern California, goes on trial in Federal District Court in Washington. Few people connected to the Jan. 6 attack have embraced conspiracy theories about the attack as fully as Mr. Hostetter, who is planning to place them at the heart of his defense.”
Prosecutor Royce C. Lamberth in a letter to the presiding judge last month, warned that Hostetter could plunge the proceeding into chaos.
“The defendant’s goal with this trial — rather than a genuine engagement on the elements or the evidence — is to create a circuslike atmosphere and to promote his own brand,” Lamberth’s letter said.