Otis Mayfield
Diamond Member
- Sep 17, 2021
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Lamberth[the judge] cited the legal adage that "if you represent yourself, you have a fool for a client" and relayed a cautionary tale from his courtroom experience.
Hostetter[the accused], a former police chief turned yoga instructor and pro-Trump protest leader, was undeterred.
In a recent video Hostetter posted online, he said he's planning to persuade a jury that the real conspiracy is the government's case against him.
"They're going to have to say to themselves, 'Yeah, the election was stolen, the government was overthrown, and Alan was right about combating the lockdowns, masking, the vaccines — case closed,'" said Hostetter, while wearing a hat with the words "COVID IS A SCAM" on it.
(Hostetter has conspiratorial views. In addition to supporting the false notion that Trump won the 2020 election, Hostetter has also spoken at an event affiliated with the pro-Trump conspiracy theory known as QAnon and has also posted online about conspiracy theories involving "satanists," Pope Francis and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.)
Speaking to Judge Lamberth, Hostetter said he wanted to represent himself, in part, to save on expensive legal bills, and also to expose what he views as a "corrupt" prosecution.
The judge proposed appointing a standby attorney to help Hostetter with some of the legal intricacies of his case.
Hostetter agreed on the condition that the attorney not have "any association with secret societies such as Yale's Skull & Bones, Freemasonry, or other organizations that require oaths or vows of secrecy that often feed into the masonic lodges such as the Elks Club, for example, which could potentially be a big part of my case."
"I'm sure we can find someone like that," Lamberth told Hostetter.
The max sentence for what he did is 20 years, he'll probably get 10 years and be out in 5. Still that's 5 years off your life. Get a real attorney.
A lot of the Jan 6th rioters are trying to defend themselves. A lot of them are doing it because they're poor. Why didn't trump pay for their legal fees? It's trump's fault they're in jail.
Some are from the "sovereign citizen movement" and say the government has no power over them. They are about to find differently.
Do you think it's a good idea for these people to defend themselves?