In a major victory for hundreds of Trump supporters, including former President Donald Trump himself, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Pennsylvania man Joseph Fischer, who challenged a charge brought against him in connection with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. This decision has significant implications for the ongoing court proceedings related to the storming of the Capitol and its aftermath.
The case, known as Fischer v. United States, revolves around the interpretation of criminal law rather than a constitutional issue. Following FBI investigations, more than 1,400 rioters were charged with crimes such as assaulting police officers and possessing weapons. Additionally, over 350 Trump supporters who breached the Congress building were charged with obstructing an official parliamentary procedure related to the certification of Joe Biden’s election by Congress.
Joseph Fischer, a former Pennsylvania police officer involved in the Capitol attack, successfully challenged the obstruction of justice charge against him in a District Court in Washington DC. After an appeals court overturned his conviction, Fischer appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear his case.
The prosecution had relied on a section of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, passed in 2002 after the Enron scandal, which criminalizes actions like obstructing official proceedings. Fischer’s lawyers argued before the Supreme Court that this law was intended to protect evidence in investigations, and not to criminalize actions like those of the Capitol rioters.
As a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Fischer’s case, the charge of obstruction of justice has been dropped in the trials of more than 350 Capitol rioters. This decision will likely lead to reduced sentences for those already convicted and the dismissal of charges in pending cases. The implications for Donald Trump’s criminal trial related to
