WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday ruled in favor of a former police officer who is seeking to throw out an obstruction charge for joining the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The justices in a 6-3 vote on nonideological lines handed a win to defendant Joseph Fischer, who is among hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants — including former President Donald Trump — who have been charged with obstructing an official proceeding over the effort to prevent Congress' certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.
The court concluded that the law, enacted in 2002 as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act after the Enron accounting scandal, was only intended to apply to more limited circumstances involving forms of evidence tampering, not the much broader array of situations that prosecutors had claimed it covered.
The provision targets anyone who "obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so," but the court determined that its scope is limited by a preceding sentence in the statute referring to altering or destroying records.
DOJ and FBI have concluded that Jeffery Epstein had no "client list," and committed suicide
7/7/2025 1:31 AMTariffs return to April rates on August 1 without deals, Bessent said
7/7/2025 12:47 AMUS Treasury Secretary Bessent has said: 100 smaller countries will get set tariff rate, many never even contacted us
7/7/2025 12:45 AMThe US is to impose 10% tariffs on around 100 countries, including those in trade negotiations
7/7/2025 12:35 AM
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