West Virginia's Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey Thursday welcomed former President Donald Trump's idea of moving his trial to West Virginia, commenting that Trump won't get a "fair shake" if his trial on charges related to the 2020 election remains in Washington, D.C.
"Donald Trump is not going to get a fair shake in DC, the home of the Swamp," Morrisey posted on social media's X, formerly Twitter. "If prosecutors insist on proceeding with this politicized case, they should move the venue to West Virginia. West Virginians believe in upholding the rule of law and don’t support a double-standard of justice."
Trump, ahead of his arraignment in Washington, D.C., called on his social media page for a change of venue and a "federal TAKEOVER" of the nation's capital, insisting it will not be possible for him to get a fair trial there.
"The latest Fake 'case' brought by Crooked Joe Biden & Deranged Jack Smith will hopefully be moved to an impartial Venue, such as the politically unbiased nearby State of West Virginia!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social page Wednesday, while railing against President Joe Biden, special counsel Jack Smith, and the "anti-Trump" city of Washington, D.C.
Trump's argument came after his attorney, John Lauro, told NPR that he wants the case to move to the Mountain State, saying that Trump's legal team is "looking for a more diverse area that has a more balanced political jury pool."
"The country is very, very divided politically right now; this is a very divisive indictment," said Lauro. "It goes to issues of free speech and political activity.
"So, we're looking for a jury that will be more balanced. And West Virginia was a state that was more evenly divided. And we're hoping for a jury that doesn't come with any implicit or explicit bias or prejudice. So it makes sense to go to a place like West Virginia."
Trump won West Virginia in his 2016 election by 42 percentage points and took the state in 2020 with 68.6%. West Virginia, a strong red state, has not elected a Democrat for president since former President Bill Clinton in 1996, according to The New York Times.
The closest federal courthouses in West Virginia to Washington D.C. are in Elkins, which is 197 miles away, and Martinsburg, located 77 miles away.
According to the Sixth Amendment, criminal defendants have the right to trial "by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed," meaning the trial would be in Washington, D.C., where the indictment against him is centered.
However, federal trials have been moved in other cases, and to states further away, such as in the 1990s, when the trial for the Oklahoma City bombing suspects in the 1990s was moved to Colorado after a federal court determined that "there is so great a prejudice against these two defendants in the state of Oklahoma that they cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial at any place," reported Forbes.
However, judges in Washington have refused to move other cases involving the Jan. 6, 2021 protests at the Capitol, despite requests from defendants who said any jury in the district would be too biased against them.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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