- The head of the Philadelphia Proud Boys is asking that his sedition trial be moved out of DC.
- Zachary Rehl argued in court papers that the public Jan. 6 hearings in June will taint his jury for his August trial.
- Rehl says the hearings' focus on the Proud Boys will cause 'prejudicial pretrial publicity.'
The head of the Philadelphia Proud Boys on Thursday filed court papers arguing that the House Select Committee's public hearings on the Jan. 6 Capitol would taint the jury for his August trial.
Zachary Rehl filed the court documents hours before scheduled congressional proceedings, seeking to have the trial moved out of Washington, DC — joining a similar effort by his co-defendant, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who has also demanded a venue change due to negative pre-trial publicity.
"Mr. Rehl respectfullly submits that requiring him to go to trial in the District in the shadow of the Select Committee's investigation would be highly prejudicial," his filing on Thursday argues.
"The non-stop prejudicial publicity requires the Court to … transfer venue to a federal district that is not as impacted by the Select Committee's work," the filing says.
The televised hearings — set to begin Thursday night with a focus on the Proud Boys' role in the insurrection attempt — will create a "prejudicial effect," Rehl argued in court documents.
Rehl, Tarrio and three others are in pretrial detention pending an August 8 trial in DC District Court; on Monday, they were hit with new seditious conspiracy charges.
Rehl is also accusing the federal government of intentionally waiting until this week to file the new sedition charges — again, he alleges, to stoke pre-trial publicity.
The new charges and the looming public hearings have combined to create a "renewed media frenzy" surrounding the Proud Boys, the filing says.