Judges lean towards rioter; could affect Trump
Conservative US Supreme Court justices signalled scepticism yesterday toward an obstruction charge brought by the Justice Department against a Pennsylvania man in the 2021 Capitol attack. The case has possible implications for the prosecution of presidential candidate Donald Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The justices heard arguments in Joseph Fischer’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling, rejecting his attempt to escape a federal charge of corruptly obstructing an official proceeding — the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump that the rioters sought to prevent on January 6, 2021.
Trump, challenging Biden in the November-5 election in a 2020 rematch, faces the same charge in a case brought against him last year by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority.
Tough questions
Some of the conservative justices posed tough questions to Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar about the Justice Department’s application of an obstruction provision in the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act to Fischer’s case.
“We have enforced it in a variety of prosecutions that don’t focus on evidence tampering. Now I can’t give you an example of enforcing it in a situation where people have violently stormed a building in order to prevent an official proceeding, a specified one, from occurring,” Prelogar told conservative Justice Clarence Thomas.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch expressed concern over how a broad interpretation of the law could cover numerous other actions including non-violent protests, emphasising the maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.