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Supreme Court makes it harder to charge Jan. 6 defendants – and Trump – with obstruction – JS
By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON— The Supreme Court On Friday, it became more difficult to charge defendants in the Capitol riot with obstruction, a charge also brought against former President Donald Trump.
The judges ruled that the charge of obstructing an official proceeding, which was issued in 2002 in response to the financial scandal that engulfed Enron Corp. overturned, the evidence must include that defendants attempted to tamper with or destroy documents. Only some of the people who violently attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 fall into that category.
The decision could be used as fodder for claims by Trump and his Republican allies that the Justice Department unfairly treated Capitol riot defendants.
It is unclear what consequences the court’s ruling will have the case against Trump in Washington, of course special prosecutor Jack Smith has said the charges the former president faces will not be affected.
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The Supreme Court has sent the case of former Pennsylvania police officer Joseph Fischer back to a lower court to determine whether Fischer can be charged with obstruction. Fischer has been charged for his role in disrupting Congress’ certification Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election over Trump.
Fischer is among about 350 people charged with obstruction. Some pleaded guilty or were convicted of lesser charges.
About 170 suspects in the Capitol riot have been convicted of obstructing or conspiring to obstruct the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress, including the leaders of two far-right extremist groups. the proud boys And the oath keepers. The sentences of a number of defendants have been postponed until after the judge has ruled on the case.
Some rioters even obtained early release from prison while the appeal was still pending because they feared they would have to serve longer than necessary if the Supreme Court ruled against the Justice Department. Among them is Kevin Seefried, a man from Delaware threatened a black police officer with a pole tied to a Confederate battle flag as he stormed the Capitol. Seefried was sentenced to three years in prison last year, but a judge recently ordered him to serve a year in prison pending the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Most lower court judges who weighed in have upheld the charges. Among them, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, wrote that “statutes often extend beyond the primary evil that animated them.”
But U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, another Trump appointee, dismissed the charges against Fischer and two other defendants, writing that prosecutors went too far. A divided panel of the federal appeals court in Washington reinstated the indictment before the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. About 1,000 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury or judge after a trial.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, which handled the Jan. 6 prosecutions, said no one convicted or charged with obstruction will be fully exonerated because of the ruling. Each suspect also faces other felony or misdemeanor charges, or both, prosecutors said.
For about 50 convicts, obstruction was the only crime, prosecutors said. Of those, about two dozen who are still serving their sentences are most likely to be affected by the ruling.
