Supreme Court Upends Hundreds of Capitol Riot Cases

The Supreme Court has upended hundreds of prosecutions related to the Capitol riot—including one of former President Donald Trump’s criminal cases—by ruling Friday that the feds must narrow their usage of the charge of obstructing of an official proceeding.

In a 6-3 ruling, the justices significantly weakened the statute under which more than 330 rioters had been charged. Trump has also been charged with obstruction in his criminal case in Washington, D.C., related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

In the case, Fischer v. US, a former cop who was indicted for participating in the riot argued that prosecutors had bastardized the charge of “obstruction of an official proceeding,” an offense that was introduced after the Enron financial scandal in 2002 and was intended to relate to the destruction of records in relation to an investigation.

Read more at The Daily Beast.