A federal appeals court has sided with the Justice Department in a case that could have upended hundreds of charges brought following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
FILE - Violent insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the Capitol, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. A federal appeals court sided on Friday, April 7, 2023, with the Justice Department in a case that could have upended hundreds of charges brought in the Capitol riot investigation.
But U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols found that prosecutors stretched the law beyond its scope to inappropriately apply it in the these cases. Nichols ruled that a defendant must have taken “some action with respect to a document, record or other object” in order to obstruct an official proceeding under the law.In her appeals court ruling, Judge Florence Pan noted that Nichols — an appointee of Trump — was the only lower court judge overseeing Jan.
The law has been on the books for two decades and used thousands of times, but until the Jan. 6 prosecutions it had been used only against people accused of damaging or impairing evidence, the Trump appointee wrote. The appeals court’s ruling suggests more legal wrangling over the law is likely. While he sided with Pan in reversing Nichols’ decision, Judge Justin Walker said the court was wrong to not address what the law means by “corruptly.”
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