The Supreme Court is set to rule on whether or not charges related to obstructing official proceedings can be applied to Donald Trump and other January 6th defendants. MSNBC fears the court could wipe away a swathe of charges against the former president and others if it decides they cannot.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith’s charges against Trump over Jan 6 include “conspiracy to defraud the United States”, “conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding”, “obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding,” and “conspiracy against rights”.
The second and third of these relate to the counting and certification of the Electoral College vote. However, the laws against obstructing official proceedings were originally passed in response to the Enron scandal, which saw Wall Street executives doctor and destroy documents to disrupt a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation.
One federal judge in a Jan 6 case, Carl Nichols, ruled the white-collar crime law does not apply to the sort of disruption seen on Jan 6, because it did not involve “some action with respect to a document, record, or other object in order to corruptly obstruct, impede or influence an official proceeding.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed Nichols’s ruling, but the Supreme Court is now set to weigh in, with MSNBC noting that an “adverse” ruling could “cut Jack Smith’s election case in half”.
“The court should not interfere with these prosecutions and should allow federal prosecutors, including Smith, the chance to hold those responsible for the events of Jan. 6 accountable for their actions,” complained MSNBC.
The network admitted, however, that “the federal obstruction statute may not have originally been envisioned as a tool to punish a president who allegedly sought to illegally maintain power”.