January 6 Defendants File Challenges in U.S. Supreme Court To Abuse Of ‘Obstruction of Justice’ Law
The existential fate of the First Amendment of the US Constitution rests in the hands of the Supreme Court and whether the high court of appeal will strike down 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2), the most serious criminal charges leveled against former President Donald Trump and an ever-growing number of January 6 defendants.
1512 criminalizes any effort to “corruptly” obstruct, influence or impede any official proceeding.” A conviction can result in a prison sentence of up to 20 years.
Last April, an appellate court issued a splintered 2-1 ruling endorsing the DOJ’s unprecedented misuse of the statute, a law passed under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 outlawing evidence tampering in the aftermath of the Enron/Arthur Anderson accounting scandal.
