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The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to several cases on January 6th.
The ruling narrows the scope of charges the Justice Department has relied on in more than 300 cases, including those against Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court on Friday made it harder to prosecute some of the Jan. 6 rioters, potentially weakening the Justice Department’s case against former President Trump in the process.
The big picture: The court narrowed down to one specific charge that the Justice Department has relied on in more than 300 cases involving Trump over the Jan. 6 attack.
The charge, known as obstruction of justice, has previously been applied almost exclusively to white-collar crimes such as evidence tampering, but the Justice Department has argued that the January 6 riot was an attempt to disrupt the official business of certifying the 2020 election.
The court said on Friday that to prove the obstruction charge, the prosecution must prove that the defendant interfered with documents, records or other essential parts of official proceedings.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote in the majority opinion:
Chief Justice John Roberts argued in the majority opinion that if Congress intended for prosecutors to be able to impose a 20-year prison sentence for the kind of conduct witnessed on Jan. 6, 2021, lawmakers would have said so.
“Nothing in the statute’s language or legislative history indicates that the statute is designed to impose a maximum 20-year prison sentence on all obstruction of justice defendants, and lesser penalties may be imposed under more specific obstruction of justice statutes,” Roberts wrote.
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