A federal judge Friday denied a request by former Deputy Prosecutor Katherine Kealoha to postpone her upcoming trial because of the partial government shutdown, even guaranteeing that everybody working on the case will get paid.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard L. Puglisi told Kealoha’s court-appointed attorney Cynthia Kagiwada that he was not convinced that Kealoha and the other defendants with court-appointed lawyers would be unable to receive competent counsel consistent with the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial.

Puglisi noted that almost all the bills submitted to date in the case have been paid and that lawyers tend to be paid on a lagging basis anyway.

“I don’t see that as an issue that goes to effective assistance of counsel,” he added.

Jury selection in the case against Kealoha; her husband, former Police Chief Louis Kealoha; and three former members of the Honolulu Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Unit is scheduled to start in March. The defendants — three of whom have court-appointed attorneys — are charged with conspiring to frame a Kealoha relative with stealing the Kealohas’ mailbox and lying about it to federal investigators to cover up their actions.

Prior to Puglisi’s ruling, Kagiwada told the judge that she and her paralegal expect to spend hundreds of hours over the next several months preparing for the case, with no indication on how long the shutdown will last and when they will get paid — a hardship for someone running a solo practice.

She also said the uncertainty created by the shutdown is affecting her ability to find people willing to work on the case, including expert witnesses, and to deal with expenses such as travel and copying.

“I’m running into all these hurdles,” she said.

Unlike at a large law firm where staff can assist with billing, Kagiwada said she has to handle such issues herself, taking away from time she can devote to preparing for trial.

And because of the enormous commitment the case requires, she has had to turn down other cases, something she can do for now but will become more of an issue the longer the shutdown lasts, according to Kagiwada.

Her client wants the trial to start, but she also needs to have an adequate defense, Kagiwada added.

The court-appointed lawyers for Louis Kealoha and Minh-Hung “Bobby” Nguyen did not join with Kagiwada in seeking to postpone the trial, but they told the judge that their circumstances were different. One has an active state practice; the other, a partner to help.

Rustam Barbee, Louis Kealoha’s attorney, said he was perhaps overly optimistic that the government shutdown would end soon and the justice system would return to normal. But he told Puglisi that he agreed with most of what Kagiwada said.

Michael Wheat, the federal prosecutor overseeing the case, described Kagiwada’s concerns as “somewhat speculative.”

Despite the uncertainty created by the shutdown, Puglisi said the federal justice system cannot be immobilized when the two political branches of government are unable to agree on a way forward. He was alluding to the impasse between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over a border wall — the issue that led to the shutdown.

He then did something unusual for a judge. He guaranteed that everybody in the case — experts, lawyers, vendors — will be compensated for the work they do.

“We guarantee it 100 percent,” Puglisi said. “Everybody is going to get paid.”

And if Kagiwada is unable to retain experts because she needs money upfront, Puglisi said he might intervene or provide an additional guarantee. He even raised the idea of Kagiwada hiring vendors on credit if the shutdown persists.

The judge said he will continue to monitor the situation.

Jury selection is set for March 18.

The Kealohas face a separate trial in June for bank fraud charges.