The headquarters of Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States face each other in Washington. The assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 has now crossed the street to the headquarters of the highest judicial body. The Supreme Court has admitted this Wednesday to rule on a case with great ramifications. The judges' decision could annul dozens of convictions of defendants for participating in the assault on the Capitol and condition the charges against Donald Trump in Washington.
The court published an order this Wednesday for which it agrees to decide on two important matters. One of them, much anticipated, will serve to decide the requirements for administration of the abortion pill mifepristone. Following the repeal of the federal right to abortion in June of last year, the hearing and sentencing will attract widespread attention. But together with the two consolidated cases on the pill promoted by the pharmaceutical authority (FDA) and the laboratory manufacturer (Danco Laboratories), The judges have also admitted the case Joseph Fischer v. United States, in which a defendant for the assault on the Capitol requests protection.
What is at stake is the validity of the crime of obstruction of an official procedure applied to the revolt of January 6, 2021, which prevented Congress from proceeding normally with the certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory in the elections of November 2020. The crime is regulated in the US criminal code in article 1512 of US Code 18, which indicates in letter (c)(2) that “whoever corruptly obstructs, influences or impedes any official procedure, or attempts to do so, shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both”.
The letter of that specific section of the law, considered in isolation, seems to clearly fit what happened in the assault on the Capitol. The problem comes when it is observed that practically this entire article is intended to punish anyone who boycotts or obstructs an investigation in different ways, from murdering a witness to hiding evidence. In fact, the headline of that provision is: “Interference on a witness, a victim or an informant.” That article was also approved as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley law of 2002, aimed at prosecuting white-collar crimes. In the English original, there are also several words that leave room for interpretation. The Supreme Court began the course by discussing whether in an article the word “and” really meant “and” or meant “or”, so the debates can be endless.
Fairly, The question that the Supreme Court has agreed to answer is: “Was he wrong? [Tribunal del] District of Columbia Circuit in interpreting 18 USC § 1512(c) ('Interference with witnesses, victims, or informants'), which prohibits obstruction of congressional inquiries and investigations, to include acts unrelated to investigations and evidence? ”.
Not only the fate of Joseph Fischer depends on the answer to that question, but that of dozens of convicts. At least 152 people have been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding, and at least 108 of them have been convicted, according to an Associated Press study of court records. He is one of the criminal figures most used to persecute those who attacked the Capitol. In total, more than 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riots and more than 700 have pleaded guilty.
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Two Trump crimes
Not only that. In the case against Donald Trump for trying to alter the electoral result of the 2020 elections, two of the four crimes he is accused of have to do with that article. In the charge sheet for that case, which was Trump's third indictment, the prosecutor accuses him of four crimes: conspiracy to defraud the US Government, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction or attempted obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to violate civil rights. Although Trump is not directly accused of the assault on the Capitol and his maneuvers sought to obstruct the certification of Biden's victory in various ways, the second and third crimes depend on what the Supreme Court says in this case.
At the same time, since the Supreme Court is not expected to rule until June, at the end of the judicial year, the trial calendar remains somewhat more in the air than it already was. The calendar that indicated March 4 as the trial date begins to seem utopian. This same Wednesday, in another parallel development, the judge has decided to paralyze the investigation of the case until the court of appeals and, where appropriate, the Supreme Court, decide whether Trump enjoyed presidential immunity for his actions, as his lawyers allege. , who have appealed the judge's decision that denied it.
The Supreme Court has a six-to-three conservative supermajority. Three of its justices were appointed by Trump himself when he was president. In a judicial course marked by the four accusations against the former president (in New York, Florida, Washington and Georgia), it was clear that some of its derivatives would reach the judicial summit. There are still more cases against Trump that can escalate to the Supreme Court.
In Fischer's case, the district judge initially agreed with his motion to dismiss the obstruction charge, interpreting that the law required having taken “some action with respect to a document, record or other object” to impose a sentence. for obstructing an official procedure. However, the Justice Department appealed to the District of Columbia appeals court, which said the article should apply in this case.
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