The Supreme Court announced Wednesday it will decide whether a man accused in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol can be charged with obstructing an official proceeding, a case that could impact hundreds of other defendants, including former President Donald Trump.
At issue is a federal obstruction statute that critics say federal prosecutors are interpreting too broadly to launch hundreds of charges against Jan. 6 defendants.
The case will be argued in the spring, with a decision by the high court expected by the end of June.
The legal challenge was brought by Joseph W. Fischer, a former police officer in Pennsylvania, who attended the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, 2021, near the White House but did not immediately enter the U.S. Capitol building. Instead, he and a companion left town briefly.
He later returned to the Capitol, though, after the electoral vote count in Congress had been suspended, and entered the building for about four minutes, according to court records. Video captured him handing handcuffs to an officer and patting him on the shoulder. Mr. Fischer was later pepper sprayed in a crowd of protesters.
Federal authorities charged him with several counts related to the Jan. 6 attack — including an obstruction charge under Title 18 Section 1512, which pertains to tampering with a witness, victim or information, including the destruction of documents used during an official proceeding, and the obstruction or influence of an official proceeding.
Anyone convicted under the statute could face a fine and up to 20 years in prison.
A lower court judge dismissed the obstruction charges, ruling that prosecutors had viewed the law too broadly and that it only applied to actions taken with documents or records. But a divided panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington reversed that ruling and reinstated the charges, prompting an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Prosecutors have charged more than 300 of nearly 1,000 Jan. 6 defendants with violating the obstruction statute, which is part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that regulates financial record keeping and documentation.
According to The Associated Press, at least 152 people were convicted or pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding and 108 have been sentenced.
Title 18, Section 1512 of the law applies to anyone who corruptly “alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or otherwise obstructs, influences or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so.”
Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 after the Enron Corp. accounting scandal. It was intended to preserve evidence as part of federal investigations.
About 1,200 people have been charged with crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack, and more than 700 of the defendants have pleaded guilty, according to the Associated Press.
Mr. Trump also faces a charge by Special Counsel Jack Smith on Section 1512 of Title 18, obstructing an official proceeding, in his upcoming March trial in Washington. The former president is asserting presidential immunity from the criminal charges, and the justices are currently reviewing whether or not to take that issue up for review.
A lower court had ruled the former president is not immune from the federal charges.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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