Trump-appointed judge orders marshals to 'fetch' Jack Smith's staff after lawyer was late to court
One of Donald Trump's appointed judges, Trevor N. McFadden in Washington, D.C., was so miffed over a lawyer being late that he demanded special counsel Jack Smith explain himself, MSNBC reported.
The incident began when lawyer Stan Woodward, who is paid by Donald Trump's PAC, turned up late to court for a Jan. 6 insurrectionist hearing. Woodward is also representing Trump's former aide Will Russell, who was asked to appear before the grand jury on Thursday, Politico's Kyle Cheney tweeted.
Woodward was scheduled to be in court for the verdict of Jan. 6 attacker Freddie Klein, who previously worked for the State Department and is accused of being in the lower west terrace tunnel during the attacks.
When McFadden asked for details of why he was late, Woodward was reluctant to say since the law holds that grand jury proceedings are secret. But McFadden ordered an explanation, saying he absolved the lawyer of any consequences for revealing secret grand jury information. Woodward explained that there were concerns about a possible breach of executive privilege.
“Talking about obstructions of official proceedings,” McFadden whined. “The government has not acted as I required.”
MSNBC's Ken Dilanian revealed that McFadden was so upset about his court being delayed for an hour that he delayed it further by demanding the U.S. Marshals "fetch" special counsel staff from the grand jury to appear in his courtroom and explain themselves.
Andrew Weissmann, who had been senior prosecutor for special counsel Robert Mueller, said, "So absurd of the Judge to say this without hearing from the govt first (McFadden is a Trump appointee). Intemperate."
Prosecutor Thomas Windom arrived in McFadden's courtroom as the judge began reading his verdict for Klein. After the verdict, McFadden called Windom to his bench for a conference in which McFadden appeared to "talk a lot," Cheney relayed. The officials then left to go back to the grand jury.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance replied to Weissmann, saying she's not certain it's legal for another judge to waive a grand jury's secrecy rules.
See the MSNBC report about the moment in the video below or at the link here.
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