‘Obstruction’ claims being deleted from J6 cases after Supreme Court undermines prosecutors’ claims
Decision also expected to impact the lawfare cases Dems have assembled against President Trump
Ultra-zealous prosecutors, trying to jail as many people as they can from the Jan. 6 protest-turned-riot at the U.S. Capitol, have decided to submit to a Supreme Court ruling and eliminate “obstruction” charges from many of the case.
The prosecutions of those at a rally held by President Donald Trump that day, after which a few hundred rioted at the Capitol and broke windows and doors, has been more intense than likely any other federal prosecution ever has been. There are defendants who essentially are liable for misdemeanor offenses who have spent years in jails already awaiting trial.
One of the enhancers that prosecutors have been routinely applying to anyone at the events that day has been an obstruction charge. But now they’re working through the paperwork to drop many of those allegations since the Supreme Court said it wasn’t a proper use of the count.
The Washington Examiner said its review of court records found that many of those counts are being dropped.
It was in the Fischer v. United States case that the high court determined, 6-3, that Joe Biden’s Department of Justice was improperly applying counts against defendants a statute that actually “only applies to conduct such as manipulation or destruction of documents.”
The report noted Bill Shipley, a defense attorney who has represented dozens of Capitol defendants, told the publication the dispute is over an obstruction charge, known as 1512(c)(2). And he said prosecutors have been offering pleas to other charges.
The Examiner noted it spotted the emerging pattern in July, almost as soon as the Supreme Court ruling was announced.
Shipley said the government now is backtracking “in every case that is about to go to trial.”
The report explained, “There are 259 people who have been charged with the felony obstruction count, according to the DOJ, with around 133 having already been sentenced. Around 50 people have been sentenced on obstruction charges and no other felony. Of those, about half are currently serving a sentence of incarceration, fewer than 2% of all charged cases.”
The report cited the filing in the case against Deborah Lynn Lee, a 58-year-old woman from Pennsylvania who recently saw her felony obstruction charge deleted.
She still faces misdemeanors for allegedly entering or being in a restricted building and disorderly conduct, but the maximum possible penalty has been cut from 23 years to three.
In the case Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Diamond provided no explanation for the dismissal of the felony count, the report said.
The changes will not mean the cases will be dropped entirely, as no defendant faced only that obstruction charge. Other counts often include entering the Capitol or simply being there without permission.
Meanwhile, prosecutors working for U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves’s office have said in court filings they think the count still can be used.
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said dropping the claims made sense.
“If a case is not scheduled for trial any time soon, the prosecutors can bide their time and try to negotiate some kind of guilty plea, knowing that, if negotiations fail, they can always dismiss the case down the road. But if the case is already scheduled for trial, and the prosecutors believe they can’t win because of the Fischer decision, it’s not surprising that they’d drop those cases.”
Prosecutors claim that the convictions and sentences under the now-inapplicable provision for those whose cases already are resolved should remain.
The Fischer ruling also has, the report said, significant impact on the lawfare cases that Democrats have created against President Trump.
In one case from special counsel Jack Smith, he claims he will keep using the count.
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