Inset: Andrew Miller moments after being part of an alleged confrontation with rioters and camera crew inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Left: Miller entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 through a busted Senate wing window clutching a flag. Right: Miller inside the Capitol (Justice Department).
He has argued that he was dead. He has argued that he was a “taken man” when initially arrested. He has even argued that the capitalization of the letters in his legal name in warrants or other legal documents invalidate the charges against him.
Since his arrest in Ohio in April, accused Jan. 6 rioter Andrew Miller has insisted on representing himself. In the process, he has claimed that the charges against him cannot be supported for a host of reasons, at one point arguing that because juries are made up of registered voters and, and he is one, he cannot be prosecuted.
But on Thursday, Miller — very much alive — appeared in U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s courtroom and seemed to acknowledge the reality of his situation.
“I come in peace,” he said, greeting U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan as he made an appearance for a status conference in her courtroom in Washington, D.C., according to CBS News reporter Scott MacFarlane. They were the first words Miller had uttered to the judge after having spent months rejecting legal assistance in his case and responding to her denial of his motions to dismiss the indictment “for cause … and dishonor.”
Waiting a beat Thursday after Miller’s greeting, Chutkan reportedly replied: “I’m glad to hear that.”
Miller was charged on four counts, including two counts of disorderly conduct, one count of entering and remaining in restricted grounds and another for parading, picketing and demonstrating. A statement of facts shows prosecutors do not suggest Miller was necessarily violent on Jan. 6 when he spent roughly 20 minutes inside the Capitol after he climbed in through a busted-out Senate wing window clutching a flag. A review by Law&Crime of the federal docket in his case shows he was released on his personal recognizance in May with conditions and when he was finally arraigned, he refused to enter a plea in his four-count indictment. The court was forced to enter a not-guilty plea on his behalf. Miller insisted on representing himself pro se.
He has also claimed the government has failed to meet its burden of proof to prosecute him because it is relying on “secondhand” surveillance video of him inside the Capitol and he has demanded the judge recuse herself because, for many other legally unsupported arguments, he is an “un-enfranchised” person.
He has also argued that capitalizing his name in legal documents undermines the charges, because there is no such “ANDREW MILLER” that he knows of, only “Andrew Miller.”
These are all “SCANDALOUS” issues, he wrote in a failed motion to Chutkan in May.
The language and much of Miller’s argumentation stems from the sovereign citizen ideology and movement. As noted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, “sovereign citizens believe they are not under the jurisdiction of the federal government and consider themselves exempt from U.S. law. They use a variety of conspiracy theories and falsehoods to justify their beliefs and their activities, some of which are illegal and violent.”
Chutkan denied all of Miller’s motions leading up to Thursday’s hearing, explaining succinctly in a series of orders that his positions held no legal merit. She finally told Miller in July that she would not accept any more of his filings until their next status conference.
When they met Thursday, Miller was still defiant, CBS reported. But he eventually admitted: “I don’t comprehend how the legal system works.”
“That’s why I’m advising you to get a lawyer,” Chutkan told him. “You wouldn’t do your own surgery.”
Miller, she advised, needed an “expert.”
The defendant reportedly replied: “You’re like a foreign venue … I don’t understand the legalese.”
“That’s why you want a lawyer,” Chutkan said.
Jan 6 defendant Andrew Miller responded to Judge Chutkan and said “You’re like a foreign venue … I don’t understand the legalise”
Chutkan again says: That’s why you want a lawyer
(Miller is not the first Jan 6 defendant to seek to defend himself “pro se”)
— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) August 15, 2024
CBS News reported that Miller finally took Chutkan’s advice and agreed to use a defense attorney who has been on standby. This prompted federal prosecutors to tell Chutkan they intend to offer him a plea deal promptly.
The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 30 and the judge reportedly gave Miller credit for his change of heart.
The docket does not yet show a plea deal entered.
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