The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped nearly half of pending obstruction charges against Jan. 6 defendants since the Supreme Court issued a major ruling in June, according to recent data.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that in charging Jan. 6 defendants, the DOJ had interpreted too broadly a statute that carries up to 20 years in prison for anyone who corruptly “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding.” Since the Fischer v. United States ruling, around 60 of 126 defendants had the pending obstruction charges dropped, DOJ data from Sept. 6 shows.
The DOJ is continuing to pursue charges for 13 defendants with pending charges and still assessing its course of action for the remaining defendants.
Latest DOJ stats on impact of Fischer (18 USC 1512c2, obstruction of official proceeding):
* of 126 cases pre-sentence, charge dropped in ~60; being pursued in 13; under review in ~53.
* of 133 cases post-sentence, charge dropped in ~40, still under review in remainder. pic.twitter.com/u4NsqhQOXW— Roger Parloff (@rparloff) September 9, 2024
Of the 133 defendants whose cases had already been adjudicated when the Fischer ruling was released, the DOJ “does not oppose dismissal or vacatur of the charge in approximately 40 cases,” though it is still assessing the remaining cases, according to the data.
“There are zero cases where a defendant was charged only for violating 18 U.S.C. § 1512,” the DOJ noted. “In other words, even if the government foregoes this charge, every charged defendant will continue to face exposure to other criminal charges.”
The Supreme Court held that the government must “establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects” or “other things used in the proceeding” in order to prove a violation of the obstruction statute.
In a concurring opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson suggested prosecutors could move forward with charges if they “involved the impairment (or the attempted impairment) of the availability or integrity of things used during the January 6 proceeding.”
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