The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday limited the scope of a law used against supporters of former President Donald Trump who took part in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, by throwing out a charge against one of them.
This decision could indirectly have consequences on the federal proceedings against Donald Trump for illicit attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election won by Joe Biden, since this charge is among the proceedings against him.
But this procedure is also suspended while waiting for the Supreme Court to rule – in principle on Monday – on the criminal immunity which he claims as former president.
In this case, the debate concerned the application of the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding to the storming of the Capitol, that is, the attempt to disrupt the certification by Congress of the results of the presidential election.
The Court, by a majority of six votes to three — five conservatives and one progressive against one conservative and two progressives — considers that this qualification cannot apply to Joseph Fischer, a former police officer, for his actions on January 6, 2021 .
To prove a violation of the statute used in this case, the prosecution must “establish that the defendant compromised the availability or integrity of records, documents, or objects intended for use in an official proceeding,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.
Conversely, in her opinion of disagreement, conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett, joined by two progressive colleagues, criticizes the majority for engaging in “semantic contortions” to give the law a more restrictive interpretation than that intended, according to her, by the Congress.
Attorney General Merrick Garland deplored in a statement this decision, which “limits an important federal law” used by his services to hold accountable the principal authors of January 6, 2021, “an unprecedented attack on our institutional system.”
But it will have “consequences only on a small number of cases,” according to the ministry, specifying that of more than 1,400 people charged for their participation in the assault on the Capitol, less than 18% have been prosecuted or found guilty of this charge.
Of those who were, around fifty were convicted on this count alone and only 27 are currently serving a prison sentence, according to the same source.
