About 350 Jan. 6 defendants have faced obstruction charges now thrown into doubt by the court.
The ruling could require judges to resentence some defendants who have already been sent to prison on Jan. 6-related charges. | Francis Chung/POLITICOThe Supreme Court has narrowed the scope of a federal law used to charge hundreds of people with obstructing Congress during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, jeopardizing many of those criminal cases.
The ruling may have a limited impact on the obstruction charges former President Donald Trump faces for his effort to thwart the certification of the 2020 election results. Special counsel Jack Smiththat even under the narrowest interpretation of the statute, Trump is still culpable for obstruction because he sought to introduce fabricated documents — false electoral vote certificates — as part of his sweeping bid to stay in power.
Roberts warned that the Justice Department’s “novel interpretation would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison.” Nichols, however, was alone in his decision, with more than a dozen of judges in the Washington, D.C. federal district court taking the opposite view and backing the Justice Department’s interpretation of the key language in the
“It might well be that Fischer’s conduct, as alleged here, involved the impairment of the availability or integrity of things used during the January 6 proceeding,” meaning that his prosecution “can, and should, proceed,” Jackson wrote. Lower courts will need to sort out the precise impact of the Supreme Court’s decision, she added.
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