Federal Prosecutors Begin Dropping Jan. 6 Obstruction Charges After Supreme Court Ruling
July 21, 2024 No Comments
Supreme Court justices ruled that charges brought under the obstruction law must meet certain criteria.
Supreme Court justices ruled that charges brought under the obstruction law must meet certain criteria.
The Supreme Court decided a case Friday that will affect the prosecutions of around 350 individuals charged in connection with the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. And the decision could also well affect two of the four charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith that are pending against former President Donald Trump in federal court in Washington, D.C.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in a challenge to the criminal prosecution of a Pennsylvania man, Joseph Fischer, for entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Lurking in the background is the fact that the outcome of this case could affect the pending federal indictment against former President Donald Trump in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Smith has charged Trump with obstructing and impeding the electoral vote certification in violation of Section 1512(c)(2). A ruling that Section 1512(c)(2) is limited to obstructions of investigations, for instance, could make Smith’s efforts to convict the former president under that statute much harder, if not impossible.
Conservative justices seem skeptical Tuesday about Justice Department arguments before the high court on the agency having used felony obstruction charges on over 300 people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Joseph Fischer’s case for his own Jan. 6 charges could be the biggest domino to fall that would castrate Smith’s lawfare against the former president.
The U.S. Supreme Court has set a conference for Dec. 1 on whether to accept two key Jan. 6 case appeals—one involving a federal agent who carried his firearm at the U.S. Capitol and the other on the Department of Justice’s controversial use of evidence-tampering law to prosecute Jan. 6 defendants for felony obstruction of Congress.
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