They be thinking Judge Dearie would get him off

[gratuitous]

2. I think their hope was

I think their hope was that Dearie would throw sand in the gears and slow things down enough that the former guy could ask that things be put off because, I dunno, he had to run for president again or something. And Judge Cannon seems like just the sort of toady who might do that.

Unfortunately for Needy Amin, the United States takes threats to the national security rather more seriously than violating the Emoluments Clause. The American people apparently expected the former guy to rip off the country, or at least his cronies and sycophants were good enough at making excuses for his crimes that nobody really challenged it.