Emergency Motion Seeks Release of Oath Keepers Member Kelly Meggs in Jan. 6 Conspiracy Case

Attorney decries trial delays; accuses prosecutors of 'dumping a tsunami of irrelevant junk upon the defendants and calling that disclosure.'

Members of the Oath Keepers are seen during a protest against the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election results by the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Jim Bourg/Reuters

Oath Keepers leader Kelly Meggs should be released from jail in order to prepare for the immediate start of his Jan. 6-related criminal trial, according to an emergency motion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.

A motion (pdf) and memorandum of law (pdf) filed by attorney Jonathon Moseley allege the prosecution has violated Meggs’s constitutional right to a speedy trial and—because Meggs remains jailed during trial delays—his right to due process under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The motion was filed before U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta.