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Odd January 6 Trial Follow-On: Copying Expert's Report from Another Case, to File It in Your Case, May Infringe Copyright

Eugene Volokh | 7.22.2026 8:01 AM

From Olson v. McBride Law Firm, PLLC, decided yesterday by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald (S.D.N.Y.); seems correct to me:

In April 2022, plaintiff [Lindsay Olson] prepared an expert report titled "Multi-District Comparative Community Attitude Study" (the "Report") at the request of two attorneys representing two criminal defendants charged in the "Oath Keepers" trial, which arose from charges against members of the Oath Keepers, an organized militia group that participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The Report, prepared for use in support of motions to transfer venue, analyzed potential bias in the District of Columbia jury pool against defendants prosecuted for conduct arising from the January 6, 2021 attack and concluded that "the DC Community is saturated with potential jurors who harbor actual bias" against those defendants.

For a fee of $30,000, plaintiff licensed the Report to the two attorneys who commissioned it, authorizing its use in support of venue transfer motions. In April 2022, the attorneys filed the Report on the public docket in the "Oath Keepers" case in support of a motion to transfer venue.

Defendant Joseph D. McBride and his law firm, McBride Law Firm, PLLC, represented Richard Barnett, a defendant in a separate criminal case also arising from the January 6 Capitol attack. In September 2022, defendants obtained a copy of the Report, without plaintiff's authorization and without paying a licensing fee, and filed it in its entirety in United States v. Barnett, No. 1:21-cr-00038, as an exhibit in support of a motion to transfer venue….

Olson sued for copyright infringement, and the court denied a motion to dismiss. The court held that plaintiff had plausibly alleged that........

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