A judge will talk with attorneys today about consolidating cases of the eight co-defendants charged with conspiracy to commit riot in furtherance of terrorism during the Republican National Convention.

Six of the defendants appeared briefly Monday in Ramsey County District Court.

Chief Judge Kathleen Gearin said later that it makes sense to put them together before the same judge, at least for pretrial motions.

"A lot of the motions will be similar, if not the same," she said.

There will be questions, for instance, about the search warrants and the evidence in the cases.

One defendant, Monica Bicking, 23, has filed a motion to put off the finding of "probable cause" pending completion of discovery. The defense argues that the state has not given it enough information about a confidential informant whose information was reportedly the basis for the felony charges.

The other defendants facing the conspiracy charge are Erin Trimmer, Erik Oseland, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, Nathanael Secor, Luce Guillen-Givins and Max Specktor.

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