The US Department of Justice.
- A Capitol riot defendant who is representing himself filed a series of new lengthy court documents.
- In the filings, Brandon Fellows lashed out at his former counsel and admitted to obstruction and perjury.
- Earlier this year, Fellows admitted to new felonies while representing himself during a bond hearing.
A Capitol riot defendant, who made headlines earlier this year for admitting to two new felonies while representing himself, compared himself to Jesus in a series of court filings earlier this week, in which he once again, openly acknowledged his past crimes.
Brandon Fellows faces charges in connection to the January 6 Capitol attack, including a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding.
Fellows filed a slate of lengthy, handwritten court documents, which were released Wednesday, in which he lashed out against his previous counsel, acknowledged his past perjury, and admitted to committing obstruction in an unrelated case for the second time.
Federal prosecutors accused Fellows of entering the Capitol through a broken window on January 6 and smoking marijuana in Sen. Jeff Merkley's office during the insurrection.
The defendant's new court documents, first reported by WUSA9 reporter Jordan Fischer, come one week after federal prosecutors filed a motion requesting to officially use Fellows' testimony at his October bail hearing against him during his trial, which has not been scheduled yet.
During his October bond hearing, Fellows admitted to asking his former attorney if he should call the wife of US District Judge Trevor McFadden, who is presiding over his Capitol riot case, to try and get the judge disqualified from the case.
Fellows also discussed a previous time he successfully got a new judge assigned to a case after putting the phone number of the judge's wife as his emergency contact.
In the court documents filed Wednesday, Fellows addressed the incident with the judge's wife, which is considered obstruction in the state of New York, once again admitting, in writing this time, to searching "loophole" on Google in hopes of getting the judge recused.
"I didn't care if it technically shows that I committed perjury or obstruction even though that could hurt my image or result in punishment," Fellows wrote. "This life is temporary and I fear the ultimate Judge."
Despite receiving warnings from McFadden and his own legal counsel that representing himself could prove unwise, Fellows also used his new filings to complain that "someone should have told" him that he would get a bond hearing if he requested one because he felt unprepared for the hearing.
The defendant went on to compare himself to Jesus, saying he believes he brought about a "spiritual insurrection."
"The Pharisees hated Jesus, they accused him of causing a spiritual insurrection among their people, disgracing the temples and their God," Fellows wrote. "The prosecution accuses me of being part of a physical insurrection, disgracing the 'temple of democracy,' and disgracing their gods Joe Biden and the Democratic party."
Fellows also went after his former defense attorney Cara Kurtz Halverson, who is now his standby counsel, accusing her of legal malpractice. He said he was hoping to expose the alleged malpractice during the October bond hearing by calling her in as a witness. When the judge forbade Fellows from calling Halverson as a witness, the defendant said it allowed her time to "try to escape."
On Wednesday, Halverson filed a motion to withdraw as standby counsel for Fellows, citing her client's ongoing criticism of her work. In one filing, Fellows accused her of being "the Helen Keller of making assumptions."
"Perhaps like the Pharisees, she is only blind and death to the truth," he wrote. Fellows also said Halverson was "terrified" to come see him in jail because he is unvaccinated against COVID-19 and she has a young child.
Halverson did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Fellows ended his multiple-page filings by accusing prosecutors of being "the real criminals," and challenging them to take the stand themselves.
A federal judge ordered Fellows to pretrial detention, where he is currently being held, in June after he violated several conditions, including missing a court-ordered mental-health evaluation and calling a probation officer's mother.
from Business Insider https://ift.tt/3EjUbpb
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