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Supreme Court to hear dispute over obstruction law used to prosecute Jan. 6 defendants
Washington — The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it will hear a court fight involving the breadth of a federal obstruction law that has been used to prosecute scores of defendants for their alleged actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, as well as former President Donald Trump.
An eventual decision from the Supreme Court in the case known as Fischer v. U.S. could have far-reaching impacts, since the Justice Department has charged more than 300 people under the obstruction statute in cases related to Jan. 6.
Most significantly, special counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with a single count of corruptly obstructing and impeding an official proceeding, namely Congress’ certification of the Electoral College results on Jan. 6. The former president has pleaded not guilty to that offense and the three others he is facing in the case related to the 2020 presidential election. A trial in Trump’s case is set to begin in March.
The Supreme Court case
Requests for the Supreme Court to weigh in arose from three criminal prosecutions in the federal district court in Washington, D.C., of defendants facing charges stemming from their participation in the assault on the Capitol.
Each of the three men — Edward Lang, Garrett Miller and Joseph Fischer — were charged with corruptly obstructing, influencing or impeding an official proceeding. The provision is part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was passed in 2002 following the Enron scandal.
The U.S. district court granted Miller’s request to dismiss the obstruction count, finding that while the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 was an official proceeding, the conduct alleged in the indictment was outside the scope of the law. The provision, it said, was limited by language earlier in the statute and only applied if a defendant took “some action with respect to a document, record, or other object in order to corruptly obstruct, impede or influence an official proceeding.”
Prosecutors did not allege that Miller “took some action with respect to a document, record, or other object in order to corruptly obstruct, impede, or influence Congress’s certification of the electoral vote,” the district court said.
The court applied its reasoning to dismiss the obstruction counts against Fischer and Lang, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed the dismissal orders. A divided three-judge panel found that the law “applies to all forms of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding” and said the lower court erred when it interpreted the provision to apply only to actions taken regarding documents, records or other objects.
During the appellate proceedings, federal prosecutors dismissed one of the counts against Miller for transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, and he pleaded guilty to remaining charges. Miller was sentenced to 38 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
The three defendants appealed the D.C. Circuit’s decision to the Supreme Court, raising the question of whether their alleged conduct on Jan. 6 falls within the scope of the obstruction statute. Each, however, has different reasoning as to why their alleged acts are not covered by the law.
Others who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 and were prosecuted under the measure urged the Supreme Court to step in. Trial courts, prosecutors and defense attorneys “have no clear guidance on the requirements or scope” of the obstruction law, lawyers for three other Capitol defendants told the justices in a filing.
They argued that none of the three judges on the D.C. Circuit, Judges Gregory Katsas, Justin Walker and Florence Pan, agreed on what conduct violates the statute, and warned that the broad reading of the law means it would cover any unlawful act that could be tied to an official proceeding.
The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court to turn away the cases, arguing in part that the obstruction provision is broad enough in its reach to cover the conduct of the Jan. 6 rioters and encompasses conduct directed at the official proceeding itself, rather than records or evidence that might be considered.
“It is therefore natural to say that a defendant obstructs an official proceeding by physically blocking it from occurring — as happened here when petitioners and others violently occupied the Capitol for several hours and thereby prevented the joint session of Congress from doing its work,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represents the government before the high court, wrote in a filing.
The Biden administration also warned that it is too early for the Supreme Court to get involved in the cases, since neither Miller, Fischer nor Lang have been convicted of obstructing an official proceeding.
The Democratic National Committee is projecting digital messages on Madison Square Garden’s exterior during former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally on Sunday about recent reports that he once praised Adolf Hitler and his generals and that cast him as unhinged.
“Trump praised Hitler,” one of five planned projections from the DNC says, referring to Trump’s longest-serving chief-of-staff, four-star Marine Corps. Gen. John Kelly, telling The Atlantic this week that Trump had admirable things to say about the German dictator.
Trump says he “never said it,” and campaign aides have denied Kelly’s accounts.
Sunday marks the first time the DNC is projecting counterprogramming onto a building while Trump will be inside it, but it’s far from the first time Democrats have deployed the technique. The DNC put projections on Trump Tower in New York City on the night of the vice presidential debate and on Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower during the Democratic National Convention in August.
Democratic National Committee
This time, the stunt comes as some Democrats make comparisons to a 1939 rally supporting Hitler and the Nazi party at a previous reiteration of Madison Square Garden ahead of World War II. Billed as a “Pro American Rally,” the February 1939 event was organized by German American Bund, an pro-Hitler organization, attended by more than 20,000 people and saw an even larger number of counter-protesters outside.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Gov. Tim Walz on Sunday also compared Trump’s rally there to the 1939 rally.
“Donald Trump’s got this big rally going at Madison Square Garden,” Walz said, speaking to voters in Nevada. “There’s a direct parallel to a big rally that happened in the mid 1930s at Madison Square Garden. And don’t think that he doesn’t know for one second exactly what they’re doing there.”
Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris have recently increased their criticisms of the former president as they push their final message to voters in the final stretch ahead of the election. In a CNN town hall, Harris agreed that Trump was a fascist and Walz has called comments from the former president “so damn racist.”
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Hillary Clinton said Trump’s choice of venue for his closing message was no coincidence and that he was “actually reenacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939,” following similar comparisons from others including New York state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal.
Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt fired back to say Clinton herself has held events there while her husband, former President Bill Clinton, accepted the Democratic nomination there in 1992.
“Putting aside her hypocrisy, Hillary’s rhetoric about half of the country is disgusting,” Leavitt said in a statement.
Sunday’s rally comes just days after Kelly also told The New York Times Trump has little appreciation of history, saying, “I think he’s lacking in that.”
Trump also personally rebuffed the criticism at a rally later on Friday in Michigan, distancing himself and his base from the comparison.
“I guess in the 1930s or something, some guy who was inclined toward the Nazis had something, and she said it’s just like the 1930s. No, no, this is called Make America Great Again,” Trump told a crowd in Traverse City.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison didn’t go as far as to make the same comparison as Clinton but told CBS News in a statement he sees Trump as having “grown increasingly unhinged in the final weeks heading into Election Day; so much so that those who know Trump best are warning voters that he is dangerously unfit to lead.”
To that end, the DNC is also projecting messages onto Madison Square Garden questioning Trump’s competency including, “Trump = Unhinged” and “Trump = Unwell.”
David Schwartz, a trial attorney in New York City, has previously told CBS News it’s illegal to project digital signs in New York City for longer than 60 seconds without a permit. A spokesperson with the DNC, however, said they are aware of the law and complying with it by rotating through individual messages.
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NEW YORK — Timothée Chalamet made a surprise appearance Sunday at his own look-alike contest in Manhattan.
At least one person was arrested after a large crowd formed and police broke up the event in Washington Square Park.
Chalamet posed for photos with his doppelgängers, some of whom came dressed as his characters from the movies “Wonka” and “Dune.”
The look-alike contest was one of several such competitions hosted by the YouTube personality Anthony Po, and it promised $50 for the winner. As word spread on social media, thousands of people RSVP’d.
From “a silly joke” to “pandemonium”
Stefan Jeremiah / AP
Minutes after the competition started — and before Chalamet arrived — police ordered the group to disperse from the park. Organizers were hit with a $500 fine for an “unpermitted costume contest,” and police said one person was issued a summons for disorderly conduct.
“It started off as a silly joke and now it’s turned pandemonium,” Paige Nguyen, a producer for the YouTube creator, told The Associated Press.
The group relocated to another park, and the audience eventually crowned Miles Mitchell, a Staten Island college senior, as the winner.
“I’m excited and I’m also overwhelmed,” Mitchell said. “There were so many good look-alikes. It was really a toss-up.”
The contestants were asked to demonstrate their French skills, about their romantic plans with Kylie Jenner, and what they would do to make the world a better place.
WESTON – A small group of loyal customers gathered in Weston Saturday morning to thank a pharmacist who is relocating as Walgreens closes the location where he served the community for almost three decades.
The celebration was led by an 11-year-old boy who shocked the pharmacist by presenting him with thousands of dollars that he raised as a thank you gift.
Weston Walgreens closing
In the midst of corporate cutbacks at Walgreens, the location on Boston Post Road is closing permanently. So a small group came out to thank the pharmacist at the store.
“It’s humbling. I can’t believe it. It’s amazing,” said veteran pharmacist Bob Hesselberg, who has worked at the store for nearly 30 years. “I don’t want to retire, even though I am 75. I don’t want to retire. I’m not ready for it.”
Hesselberg is moving on to a store in Waltham. The sendoff was led by 11-year-old Aarav Khanna, whose school bus routinely drops him off right across from the Walgreens location.
“I’ve seen the amount of kindness and hard work he puts into his job,” Khanna said.
CBS Boston
Money raised for pharmacist
Khanna got the idea to raise money for Hesselberg as a going away present. And the total grew quickly. Thanks to the community, Kanna was able to present Hesselberg with a check for $6,000 on Saturday, leaving the pharmacist in shock.
During the Saturday celebration, a young girl gave a handmade card to Hesselberg, who people in the community call “Pharmacist Bob.”
“You walk in, he not only greets you by name, but he wants to know how your family is, and how is that medication you had last time, and how are you doing? And he means it,” customer Carol Ott said.
The Weston Walgreens closes in the middle of November. Hesselberg hopes some customers will follow him to Waltham, but he worries about some of the older residents driving that distance, especially since the chain won’t be doing home delivery anymore.
“I’m gonna miss everybody. And I’m very grateful for all of this. And thank you so much,” Hesselberg told the crowd.
