Supreme Court Comes Down on DOJ in Landmark Decision

The Biden Department of Justice and Merrick Garland received a stiff slap across the wrist by the Supreme Court.

In Fischer v. United States, the court ruled 6-3 that the government had used a very broad interpretation of the law to charge January 6 defendants.

This would include Trump, and that decision may have just wrecked the case of Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Bad Day for the DOJ

In his majority opinion, Justice Roberts wrote, “To prove a violation of Section 1512(c)(2), the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or as we earlier explained, other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so.

“The judgment of the D. C. Circuit is therefore vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

Roberts continued, “The Government’s reading of Section 1512 would intrude on that deliberate arrangement of constitutional authority over federal crimes, giving prosecutors broad discretion to seek a 20-year maximum sentence for acts Congress saw fit to punish only with far shorter terms of imprisonment—for example, three years for harassment under §1512(d)(1), or ten years for threatening a juror under §1503.”

I should note, Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with two liberal justices, while Biden-appointed Justice Ketanji Jackson Brown sided with the conservatives on the court.

More than 300 of the January 6 defendants were charged with “corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding.”

This ruling would effectively downgrade that charge to trespassing, but it may also gut Smith’s January 6 case against Trump, which would send Democrats right off the ledge of the nearest cliff.

Two of the charges against Trump will be impacted by this ruling, so expect some outrage on the left and more attack against the court by Democrats.

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