Supreme Court to rule on two charges against Trump in election subversion case

Donald Trump continues to define the judicial year at the U.S. Supreme Court. He is the leading figure of several of the most politically and constitutionally important cases, either directly or indirectly. On Tuesday — while the first criminal trial of the former president warms up in a Manhattan court — the nine justices of the Supreme Court will discuss the application of two charges against Trump in the federal case over his efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election. Although, strictly speaking, Trump is not a defendant in the case, what the Supreme Court decides may overturn the charges against him. What’s more, the case will play a decisive role in the convictions against the rioters who took part in the assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The Supreme Court has a six-to-three conservative supermajority. Three of the justices were appointed by Trump himself when he was president. On March 4, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution — which prohibits an insurrectionist from running for president — could not be applied to Trump over his role in the assault on the Capitol. The justices are also set to decide whether Trump was protected by presidential immunity when he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election. And other cases linked to the Republican could also reach the Supreme Court.

For now, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Joseph Fischer vs the United States, which concerns a Capitol riot defendant who has appealed one of the counts of his indictment, obstruction of an official proceeding. At stake is the validity of the charge, which was applied to the rioters who stormed the Capitol and prevented Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 elections.

In the case of Fischer, a former Boston police officer, the district judge initially agreed with his request to overturn the obstruction charge. The magistrate ruled that in order to charge a defendant with obstructing an official proceeding — in this case, Congress certifying Biden’s victory — the law states that they must have taken “some action with respect to a document, record, or other object.” In response to this judge’s decision, the Department of Justice appealed to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, which said that the article should be applied to Fischer’s case.

The crime of obstruction of an official proceeding is listed under the U.S. criminal code in Section 1512 of Title 18, which indicates in part C2 that “whoever corruptly obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

Considered on its own, that description seems to clearly apply to the rioters who stormed the Capitol. The problem is that nearly all of Title 18 is intended to punish people who boycott or obstruct an investigation, from murdering a witness to hiding evidence.

In fact, the title is called: “Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant.” What’s more, it was approved as part of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, aimed at prosecuting white-collar crimes. There are also several words that leave room for interpretation.

The exact question that the Supreme Court has agreed to answer is: “Did the DC Circuit err in construing 18 USC § 1512 (’Witness, Victim, or Informant Tampering’), which prohibits obstruction of congressional inquiries and investigations, to include acts unrelated to investigations and evidence?”

In Washington’s case against Donald Trump for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, two of the crimes he is charged with depend on the answer to that question. In the indictment, the former president is charged with four counts: conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction or attempted obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to violate civil rights. Although Trump is not directly accused of the assault on the Capitol, his efforts sought to obstruct the certification of Biden’s victory, so the second and third charges depend on what the Supreme Court says in Joseph Fischer vs the United States.

The federal case against Trump also depends on whether the Supreme Court rules that he was protected by presidential immunity — an argument rejected by the lower courts. The Supreme Court hearing on the former president’s immunity claims is scheduled for April 25. That decision would affect the four counts charged against Trump in the federal case. The appeal has indefinitely delayed the trial, which should have started last month, but is now stalled and may not take place before the presidential elections on November 5, which will be a repeat of the 2016 showdown between Trump and Joe Biden.

The Supreme Court’s ruling in the Fischer case, which is expected in June, will affect dozens of the rioters convicted of the assault on the Capitol. At least 353 defendants were charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding, or attempting to do so, according to a recent count from the Justice Department. It is one of the most-used charges to persecute the rioters who stormed the Capitol. In total, nearly 1,400 people were charged with federal crimes stemming from the riots. A total of 791 people pleaded guilty to a variety of federal charges, many of whom faced or will face incarceration at sentencing, and another 193 were found guilty at trial.

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