Judge rejects plea from Minnesota father, son to have Jan. 6 trial delayed until Trump inauguration

A federal judge has rejected an effort by a Minnesota father and son to delay their trial on charges of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot until after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president on Jan. 20.

Kenneth Wayne Fuller, 45, and Caleb Fuller, 22, took their plea to U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Wednesday in hopes of rescheduling their Jan. 13 trial in connection with the violent insurrection that sought in vain to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory in 2020 over the incumbent Trump.

The Fullers, both from Cleveland, Minn., are charged with a felony count of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, and misdemeanor counts of knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority and disorderly conduct in a restricted building.

They argued in writing this week that a trial expected to last two weeks would be an unnecessary waste of judicial and other government officials’ time and resources given that Trump, while campaigning for president, “repeatedly stated that he would pardon those ‘patriots’ who were involved in the January 6 unrest.”

Also, their filing pointed out that the next U.S. attorney general could well dismiss their cases outright.

To buttress their argument, the Fullers pointed to a ruling in favor of another insurrection participant. Several days after Trump’s Nov. 5 victory, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras postponed the trial of William Pope, which had been scheduled to start on Dec. 2 and now awaits a new trial date.

Pope contended his trial would be a waste of the court’s time and resources “because there will never be a sentencing, and I will be free.”

In the Fullers’ case, prosecutors pushed back in their counter-filing, calling the anticipation of a pardon or clemency “based on speculation and conjecture.” They added that other judges have turned down similar efforts among those charged for their participation in the storming of the Capitol.

On Thursday, Judge Kollar-Kotelly sided with the prosecution, writing that the court is “rejecting defendants’ invitation to speculate about future clemency or charging decisions. … The trial will go forward as scheduled.”

The Fullers are among 15 people from Minnesota who have been charged with various Jan. 6 crimes. Seven of them are still waiting to go to trial. Of the eight who have been sentenced, most served little to no time imprisoned for their largely nonviolent offenses. Some sentences included home detention or probation.

Another in the Fuller family, Nicholas Fuller, lost his plea three days after Trump’s victory to have his Jan. 6 sentence delayed until after Inauguration Day. The 41-year-old brother of Kenneth Fuller was sentenced to six months of home detention. Nicholas Fuller, of Mapleton, Minn., who pleaded guilty to a felony count of obstruction of law enforcement, also was ordered by Kollar-Kotelly to serve three years’ probation and pay $2,000 in restitution.

More than 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes, two-thirds of whom have been sentenced to terms ranging from probation or electronic home monitoring up to 22 years in prison.

The mob left in its wake more than 100 police officers injured, some critically. Police gunfire killed one rioter inside the Capitol, and three other people died after medical emergencies during the chaos. In the weeks and months that followed, four of the officers who responded to the riot killed themselves.

This story contains material from the Associated Press.