A judge on Monday denied a request for a mistrial in the seditious conspiracy trial involving six individuals affiliated with the Oath Keepers militia.
CNN reported that the trial "descended into chaos" after it was discovered that jurors had access to two video clips the judge had prohibited during the trial, one showing rioters breaching the west side of the U.S. Capitol and another showing rioters accosting law enforcement officers who were trying to close a gate.
Defense attorneys moved for a mistrial after the revelations.
“I just can’t believe the only remedy at this point is a mistrial,” said District Judge Amit Mehta. “Maybe I’m wrong.”
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Defense lawyer Juli Haller clashed with the judge after bringing the matter to his attention, but Mehta noted that defense attorneys had been allowed to review the exhibits given to jurors and signed off on them.
“None of the defense lawyers did what I instructed,” Mehta said. “Everybody had at least a weekend to ask for what had been sent back and review it. Defense counsel did not do it, that’s fine.”
He told jurors to disregard the clips if they had seen them.
“I’m not going to ask you if you have reviewed them,” Mehta told jurors. “If you haven’t reviewed them, I’m going to ask you to ignore them. If you have, please disregard.”
Sandra Parker, Laura Steele, Connie Meggs and William Isaacs are accused of entering the Capitol on January 6, 2021, while prosecutors said two other defendants, Michael Greene and Bennie Parker, did not. All have pleaded not guilty.
A series of explosions rang out in Kyiv on Monday as Russia targeted the city for the second time in 24 hours.
The latest barrages hit the pro-Western country as the Ukrainian capital was still recovering from an overnight Saturday drone attack, the biggest since Russia's invasion began in February last year.
AFP journalists heard at least 10 explosions from around 11:10 am local time (0810 GMT) in Kyiv, starting just a few minutes after an air raid warning sounded.
Authorities later said Ukrainian air defenses had downed all the Russian missiles launched against the Kyiv region.
One injured man was hospitalized, they said.
"A total of 11 missiles were fired: 'Iskander-M' and 'Iskander-K' from a northerly direction," Ukraine's armed forces chief Valery Zaluzhny said.
"All the targets were destroyed by air defenses."
Sergiy Popko, head of Kyiv's city administration, said that Russians struck in the morning when "most residents were at work and on the streets".
"The Russians are clearly demonstrating that they are aiming to destroy the civilian population," he said on Telegram.
- Heavy barrage sparks panic -
AFP reporters saw people running for shelter in a metro station in central Kyiv as volleys of explosions were heard.
A witness video showed a group of schoolchildren screaming as they ran down the street.
Many residents have become used to ignoring air raid sirens but the heavy barrage prompted a panicked reaction. City authorities said 41,000 people hid in the metro.
Down on the platform of the Khreshchatyk metro station, people waited on the steps checking their mobile phones.
"I saw six, seven or eight... explosions in the sky. That's why I came here with my work colleagues," said Maksym, a plumber, sitting on the steps.
"I'm waiting for the air raid to end."
"Everyone is used to the night (attacks) when we sleep at home. But the daytime is something new, it has not happened in a long time," said Yevgeny, a 39-year-old programmer.
"They want to intimidate and scare us, so that we say this war must be stopped. That is what they are probably trying to achieve," said Volodymyr, an entrepreneur.
The Kyiv city administration said air defenses were at work during the air raid, which was the 16th attack on the city this month.
AFP journalists also saw missile fragments scattered on the road in Kyiv's northern Obolonskiy district.
"At first, they started shooting down missiles as usual. Then one of them fell on the road, as you can see, just the tail of it. Some people said it set a car on fire," said Dmytro, a young man in a plaid shirt.
Kyiv had been relatively spared from attacks since the beginning of the year, but has faced almost nightly aerial raids this month.
Authorities said early Monday that Kyiv had repelled another large number of overnight air strikes, with no casualties.
Zaluzhny said "up to 40 missiles" and "around 35 drones" had been launched, almost all of which were downed.
- 'Targets destroyed' -
Russia on Monday shelled a small town in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one woman, local authorities said. A 61-year-old man was also killed by shelling in the southern Kherson region.
A missile attack in the eastern Kharkiv region last night pounded a small settlement, wounding seven people including a pregnant woman and children aged 10 and 14, the authorities said.
In the western region of Khmelnytsky, Russian forces struck a military facility overnight, officials said.
In a rare admission of damage to a military installation, they said "five aircraft have been put out of action."
Russia's defense ministry said its forces had attacked Ukrainian airfields and "all the assigned targets have been destroyed".
Moscow has warned the West against escalating the conflict after the United States agreed to greenlight deliveries of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Kyiv has been preparing an offensive although its timing and focus have been the subject of months of speculation. Ukrainian authorities have said almost nothing except that they need more weapons from the country's backers.
Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Malyar said Monday that in the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut "the intensity of the enemy's offensive has significantly decreased" as Russian mercenary group Wagner was handing over its positions to Moscow's regular troops.
© 2023 AFP
Attorneys representing an accused Capitol rioter do not want jurors to see a profane pro-Trump t-shirt that he wore at some point during the 2020 campaign season.
As flagged by NBC News' Ryan Reilly, the defense team for Jan. 6 defendant Ralph Joseph Celentano asked the court this week to bar the government from using a photo of their client wearing a t-shirt that reads, "Trump 2020: F--k Your Feelings."
In justifying their case to bar the government from using the exhibit, the attorneys argue that "the picture is clearly taken in the kitchen of a home on an unknown date and time" and is also "not a picture of Mr. Celentano at or near the Capitol."
In addition to this, the attorneys argue that the photo is "highly prejudicial, impermissible character evidence and risks inflaming the emotions of jurors."
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In addition to the photos of the shirt, the attorneys also want to bar prosecutors from showing jurors a message that Celentano sent boasting about his exploits at the Capitol.
"Like Trump said it was wild," he wrote in the message.
Prosecutors allege that Celentano committed assault during the Capitol riots when he "blindsided" a law enforcement officer with a "football-style tackle."
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis vowed during a Monday interview with Fox & Friends to "destroy leftism" if he defeats President Joe Biden in next year's presidential election. DeSantis launched his White House campaign last week and is widely viewed as former President Donald Trump's top competitor for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
"Most of the people that support you probably voted for President Trump twice. And the first comment I hear over and over again is, "Why doesn't Ron DeSantis wait for President Trump's second term and then run?' And what is your best answer to that? Why is right now the time for Ron DeSantis to run for president?" host Will Cain asked.
"Because" DeSantis boasted, "everyone knows if I'm the nominee, I will beat Biden, uh, and I will serve two terms and I will be able to, uh, destroy leftism in this country and leave woke ideology on the dustbin of history."
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