17 Capitol Riot Instances Paused Right after Legal professional John Pierce Is Hospitalized

• Conservative legal professional John Pierce hasn’t been witnessed or read from because August 23.
• Prosecutors wrote in a court docket submitting that Pierce is reportedly unwell with COVID-19 and on a ventilator.
• All 17 of his Capitol riot clients are “properly devoid of counsel,” prosecutors reported.

John Pierce, a conservative attorney representing 17 Capitol riot defendants, has not been witnessed or heard from since August 23, leaving all of his scenarios at a standstill amid rumors that he’s on existence assist.

“Unfortunately, Mr. Pierce is reportedly ill with COVID-19, on a ventilator, and unresponsive,” federal prosecutors wrote in court filings on Monday.

Prosecutors reported Pierce’s absence meant that his scenarios were being “effectively at a standstill,” and the 17 defendants “look to be successfully devoid of counsel.”

The prosecutors requested that every single court docket handling Pierce’s consumers “just take any techniques it believes essential to assure the defendant’s legal rights are adequately guarded while Mr. Pierce continues to be hospitalized.”

The confusion first began August 24, when a colleague of Pierce’s, Ryan Marshall, began showing up on his behalf in courtroom hearings.

Marshall 1st explained to the court docket that Pierce was absent “owing to a conflict,” prosecutors explained. But later on that day, in a distinctive hearing for a distinctive accused Capitol rioter, Marshall told the court docket he had just learned Pierce experienced been in an incident and was en route to a hospital.

The pursuing morning, Marshall informed an additional choose Pierce was on a ventilator with COVID-19. Prosecutors complained in their Monday courtroom submitting that Marshall is a not a licensed attorney, and however has been their “principal or sole issue of speak to” for Pierce and his purchasers in recent days.

“The govt does not think it proper to proceed to communicate with him in Mr. Pierce’s absence,” they wrote.

Insider has been unable to independently verify Pierce’s condition. Several cellular phone numbers for Pierce’s regulation organization have been disconnected, and a colleague verified only that Pierce was hospitalized “due to signs that he thought may possibly have been linked to COVID-19.”

That colleague, Brody Womack, also advised Insider that Pierce “seems to have been struggling from dehydration and exhaustion in relation to his tireless do the job on behalf of his clientele, such as the numerous defendants he signifies in connection with the January 6, 2021 protest at the Capitol.”