NY man jailed on Jan. 6 charges gets another trial delay while hoping for

A New York man jailed for nearly four years on Jan. 6 charges has been granted another trial delay as he holds out hope for a dismissal or pardon once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Sullivan County native Jake Lang, who faces serious felony charges for allegedly assaulting police officers outside the U.S. Capitol in 2021, was finally due to stand trial on Dec. 2 after a string of delays he requested since 2022. Arrested in Newburgh 10 days after the riot, Lang has been in custody longer than any other Jan. 6 defendant with pending charges.

But now his latest date to be tried in Washington, D.C., has been erased from the calendar as well.

The federal judge hearing the case postponed it again on Tuesday at the request of Lang’s attorney, who claimed Trump’s election on Nov. 5 signaled “a seismic shift in federal policy regarding January 6 defendants.” A flurry of similar requests to put off Jan. 6 trials or sentences have been filed since Trump won, based on his vows to consider pardons for his supporters who stormed the Capitol.

Lang’s lawyer had asked to move his trial to after Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration ‒ “to allow the incoming administration to address these cases.” The proceedings against Lang could soon be moot after that review, attorney Steven Metcalf argued, citing “the high likelihood of a Presidential Pardon or dismissal of charges.”

“It is neither just nor efficient to subject the Defendant to a show trial in front of a prejudiced jury pool under a prosecution marred by political bias,” Metcalf wrote.

FBI have identified Edward Lang as the man with the shield and baseball bat in this photo from Jan. 6, in which a pro-Trump mob clashes with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol.

Prosecutors contend expectations of Jan. 6 pardons speculative

Prosecutors opposed the motion in a court filing on Tuesday, citing nine other Jan. 6 cases in which judges had shot down similar delay requests since Trump’s victory. They argued a pardon was too uncertain to hold up a trial “involving serious felony offenses including multiple assaults against police officers.”

“Lang’s assertion that he is a candidate for a presidential pardon is purely speculative and does not warrant delay of his trial,” wrote Karen Rochlin, one of the assistant U.S. attorneys prosecuting the case.

Delay sought: NY man jailed on Capitol riot charges since 2021 seeks another delay in cop-assault trial

Before ruling on the request at a pretrial conference on Tuesday, Judge Carl Nichols reportedly weighed the potential impact of a new administration on Lang’s case, asking prosecutors if a trial would be worth the time and expense after Jan. 20, according to an account by WUSA, a Washington, D.C., TV station that was in the courtroom.

Nichols wound up granting a two-month delay, pushing the trial into February. In a second account of Tuesday’s court appearance, the Washington Post reported that Nichols indicated he had “factored in the possibility that the time and expense of a jury trial could become unnecessary if the case were dropped.”

Couy Griffin, founder of "Cowboys for Trump," who served two weeks in jail for his part in the Jan. 6 riot at the United States Capitol, sits on his horse in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn May 8, 2024. Griffin was at the prison, along with Ned Lang, father of Jake Lang, a Jan. 6 defendant, who is incarcerated at the prison. They were at the prison to protest what they say is Jake Lang's incarceration under solitary confinement. — Couy Griffin, founder of “Cowboys for Trump,” who served two weeks in jail for his part in the Jan. 6 riot at the United States Capitol, sits on his horse in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn May 8, 2024. Griffin was at the prison, along with Ned Lang, father of Jake Lang, a Jan. 6 defendant, who is incarcerated at the prison. They were at the prison to protest what they say is Jake Lang’s incarceration under solitary confinement.

Nichols, a Trump appointee confirmed as a district court judge by the Senate in 2019, railed in court against the idea of across-the-board pardons “or anything close” for Jan. 6 defendants, saying it would be “beyond frustrating and disappointing,” both news outlets reported.

Jake Lang: ‘There is a tornado…his name is Donald Trump’

Yet Lang, who was in court for the conference, made a jubilant prediction about Trump’s return, as he later recounted in a social media post that matched WUSA’s description. It came as a retort after Rochlin told the judge that trying to predict Jan. 6 pardons was akin to describing a tornado or hurricane taking place outside the windowless courtroom.

Jail interview: Three years after Jan. 6 riot, NY man charged with beating cops still awaits trial in jail

“There is a tornado and a hurricane outside this building right now and his name is Donald Trump,” Lang was quoted as saying in WUSA’s account. “And he’s sweeping through the Department of Justice.”

Lang sounded sure he and other Jan. 6 defendants will be absolved in his post on X, saying: “We will soon return home to our families & the blessings that God has stored up for us while we have been gone — devoted to the most Glorious Cause: American Liberty.”

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Capitol riot: NY man hoping for Trump pardon given trial delay

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