Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton joins amicus brief to Supreme Court opposing DOJ Jan. 6 strategy
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton has joined 23 lawmakers to oppose the Biden administration’s legal strategy in prosecuting Jan. 6 defendants, and the group is asking the Supreme Court to take action.
Cotton joined House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and 21 other Republicans in filing a brief with the Supreme Court in the case of Joseph Fischer v. The United States. Fisher is accused of entering the Capitol on Jan. 6 and assaulting a police officer.
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The brief argues that the law the Biden administration is using to prosecute Fisher and others is being misapplied.
The law’s stated purpose is to prevent “tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant.” A section of that law, United States Code § 1512(c)(2), states that anyone who “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding” is violating it.
Cotton and others state that since the law was passed “in the wake of the Enron scandal and designed to prohibit witness tampering and destruction of evidence in financial crime cases,” it should not be used against Jan. 6 defendants. This is also the basis of Fischer’s appeal to the Supreme Court.
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The briefing states that by using the law this way, “It criminalizes political conduct and grants the Department of Justice nearly unfettered discretion to prosecute Americans based on the perceived morality of their political beliefs.”
Cotton’s statement accompanying the briefing announcement framed the Jan. 6 prosecutions as political and that the Biden administration is “weaponizing” federal financial law.
“The Biden administration’s pursuit of its political opponents must be stopped,” the senator said. “Their strained interpretation of the law would criminalize vast swaths of everyday political conduct and violate the First Amendment—Congress never granted, and no administration should have the power to lock up political opponents for 20 years for merely trying to ‘influence’ Congress.”
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United States Code § 1512(c)(2) is also being used by the Department of Justice in bringing charges against former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 riot.
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