Pinned
Conservative Supreme Court justices seemed generally sympathetic on April 16 to a former police officer charged under an accounting reform law after he entered the U.S. Capitol for four minutes on Jan. 6, 2021.
The case is being closely watched because once the Supreme Court rules, its decision could affect hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions, including the Jan. 6-related case against former President Donald Trump.
Joseph Fischer, from Jonestown, Pennsylvania, was indicted on several counts following the Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021, including obstructing an official proceeding under Enron-era obstruction law 18 U.S. Code Section 1512(c). Convictions under the section can lead to 20 years in prison.
The Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument over the Justice Department’s (DOJ) use of an Enron-era obstruction law to charge individuals at the U.S. Capitol breach on Jan. 6, 2021.
Their decision in the case—Fischer v. United States—is thought to bear on the DOJ’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump in the federal election case, as well as hundreds of other Jan. 6 prosecutions.
On April 16, the justices will review whether a section of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 applies to several Jan. 6 defendants, including Joseph Fischer, a former Pennsylvania police officer who entered the Capitol on that day.
A Delaware man serving a three-year sentence for marching through the halls of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, is poised to be released from prison pending appeal after serving one year thanks to a Supreme Court decision to review the Biden administration’s novel use of an evidence-tampering law to prosecute hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants for felony obstruction of Congress.