A federal judge on Monday rejected efforts by a Northern California defendant in the Jan. 6 insurrection to have his charges dropped, to have his trial moved from Washington, D.C., to Sacramento and to be released pending trial because his mental state is suffering in jail.
In a 25-page opinion filed in court in Washington, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates effectively shot down all but one of the five motions filed in recent months on behalf of Sean McHugh, an Auburn construction worker scheduled to go to trial in April in connection with the Capitol riot.
The judge’s findings follow previous, unsuccessful efforts by McHugh to have his trial moved out of Washington or have his charges dropped because of arguments that he could not receive a fair trial in a city that voted overwhelmingly for President Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
