US Supreme Court sides with Jan. 6 defendants, imperiling obstruction charges

Insights from The Washington Post, Politico, and NBC News

The News

Prosecutors improperly stretched an obstruction law that was used to charge hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, the US Supreme Court ruled Friday in a 6-3 decision.

The decision in throws about 350 Jan. 6 defendants’ charges into doubt and could prompt re-sentencing for many. The decision could also have implications for former President Donald Trump’s stalled federal trial on obstruction charges in Washington, DC. Two of the four charges he currently faces for attempting to remain in office after his 2020 defeat are based on the law, and one is specifically to do with the clause at issue in the Supreme Court’s decision.

This obstruction law was written in the wake of the Enron scandal, and makes it a crime to obstruct or impede an official proceeding.

SIGNALS

Decision could influence Trump case, but it’s unclear how

Trump’s obstruction charges brought by federal prosecutor Jack Smith are on the basis of different conduct to that of the Jan. 6 rioters — specifically, that he allegedly sought to introduce fake electoral documents to Congress to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. Smith has said Trump’s conduct would still fall under a narrowed obstruction statute, and that belief will now be tested. Regardless, the court’s decision may allow Trump to further delay his already stalled trial — a frequent legal strategy for the former president ahead of November — by filing motions to dismiss his obstruction charges. Trump and his backers could also spin the decision as evidence the Justice Department treated Jan. 6 defendants unfairly, a key campaign grievance.

Obstruction charges might still stand, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argues

Crossing ideological lines, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sided with the court’s conservative majority. But her concurrence, filed as a separate opinion, “may also have offered a roadmap to preserve most of the obstruction charges against Jan. 6 defendants,” Politico reported. She argued that the narrowed scope of the obstruction charge might still apply to the US Capitol rioters, and that lower courts should sort out the matter as the prosecution of other Jan. 6 defendants continues.

Trump ‘will always put himself over our democracy,’ Biden camp says

The Biden campaign responded quickly to the ruling, harking back to Trump’s performance at the CNN presidential debate, which took place the night before the ruling came down. “Just last night, Trump again defended January 6 and the insurrectionists who violently assaulted law enforcement officers and tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power,” the Biden campaign said. “Today’s ruling does not change the fundamental truth that Donald Trump will always put himself over our democracy.” At the debate, Trump downplayed his role in Jan. 6, instead attacking Biden and the Justice Department for destroying the lives of “innocent” rioters.