A lot of hay is being made about the RICO thing, but I am assuming that in this part of the country, that request is often put in the form of "X information for Y tort," and the only way to grab all of Nick's communication with others is framing it as proving some absurd RICO tort.
RICO has no relevancy to the case, and is not the only way to get Nick’s communications via discovery. I also wanted to raise issue with qualifying RICO as a tort, but I was wrong, in civil cases it is considered a tort (for example,
In re EpiPen Direct Purchaser Litig., 20-CV-827 (ECT/JFD) (D. Minn. Mar. 29, 2023))
Monty probably wants to prove that all of Nick's friends started defaming him together in concert
Forgive me if I’m wrong, but conspiracy is not one of the causes of action in this case.
Randazza is probably hoping to run this longer.
Both parties agreed to the discovery plan, that is to say, these deadlines are what both parties want.
Also, trial in 2025 is fast. 2 years start to finish is practically the "rocket docket" for a case with such complex legal issues and parties who like arcane arguments
If Nick has harmed Montagraph as he did, one would expect the wishes for trial would be ASAP. As the Judge noted, “Both Quest and Rekieta have submitted flurries of evidence, almost all of which indicate that they were engaged in a vulgar, online shouting match. Both called each other abhorrent names and made rude jokes at the other’s expense. However, very little of the evidence on the record relates to an actionable claim of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, or negligent infliction of emotional distress”. There is no complex issues as I remember it. It’s taking long because both parties want to get the last word in and pretend that they’re on Twitter. Rittenhouse case, full of complex issues, was resolved
in a year (and they had to deal with the Prosecution committing fraud practically left and right). In comparison this is rather simple defamation per se case wherein the most complex part is whether Montagraph has had the same kind of reputation Nick jokingly (allegedly by Nick) accused him of.