Jan. 6 defendant from Georgia drops court-appointed attorney more than one year into federal case

Caption

In this photo provided by the FBI, the man in the yellow circle is identified by an agent as Dominic Box on the east stairs of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Credit: FBI

Federal prosecutors are weathering another delay in their case against Dominic Box, a former Savannah car salesman charged in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection, after Box this month dismissed the court-appointed attorney who had represented him since the criminal case was filed in December 2022.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly postponed a previously scheduled Wednesday court date in Washington, D.C., to Feb. 28 in order to give Box's new privately retained attorney, Amy Collins, additional time to prepare.

The postponement marks the latest shakeup in the timeline of the case, which last month saw a motion by Box for a pending U.S. Supreme Court case to transpire before moving ahead with his own proceedings.

Box, 34, has pleaded not guilty to four misdemeanor counts related to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump violently sought to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.

In a notice filed this month by Collins to register her legal representation of Box, she wrote that the substitution of counsel “is not brought for delay, but to allow Mr. Box to be represented by counsel of his choice.”

Trump has repeatedly vowed to “free” Jan. 6 defendants and issue presidential pardons if he is reelected in 2024.

Collins's notice did not state why Box dismissed John Machado, the court-appointed attorney who had represented him for over a year; it simply stated that Box “no longer desires to be represented” by him.

Unlike many court-appointed attorneys in the criminal justice system, Machado served Box as a “CJA appointment,” which refers to a provision of the Criminal Justice Act allowing a federal judge to appoint and publicly fund a private attorney to represent an indigent client.

It is unclear how much taxpayer money was spent on Machado's services, or how much of the work he conducted would carry over to Collins, who is not serving as a CJA appointment.

Box was initially ordered by a magistrate judge to pay the court $250 per month, beginning in January 2023 and continuing for 18 months, which would go toward the court's cost of his representation under Machado.

However, that order was later vacated in June 2023, when Kollar-Kotelly found that Box was no longer able to afford those reimbursements. As such, she ordered that he would not be responsible for any payments to the court for Machado's services.

Since then, an online fundraising campaign in his name has been organized by a group called “Friends of Free Speech” on GiveSendGo, a crowdfunding platform that has been embraced by some on the far right. As of this story's publication, it had raised $1,755, mostly from anonymous donors.

According to jail records, Box is currently in the custody of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office in Florida, where he awaits trial on charges of driving under the influence and related offenses.