James Tobin has two different high-powered law firms paid by the Republican National Committee and eager to make themselves look good to–you guessed it, the RNC.
For example, they demanded to have jurors instructed that the phone-jamming wasn’t organized or paid for by the Republican National Committee. (Exactly how does this benefit poor James Tobin?) Reports John Di Staso, “This particular motion appeared to intrigue U.S. District Court Judge Steven J. McAuliffe”, who denied the motion, pointing out that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with this, either, but Im not going to tell the jury that.
Other pre-trial motions included asking to have the case dismissed because voters have no constitutional right to a ride to the polls and asking the judge to exclude any evidence that people receiving two hours of hang-up calls felt harassed.
Is the goal to harass Judge McAuliffe into some outburst they could use to claim a mistrial? If so, they’re out of luck–this judge has a fine sense of both funny ha-ha and funny peculiar.