(CNN)A federal judge on Friday upheld the Justice Department’s decision to use a felony obstruction law against US Capitol rioters, a major victory for prosecutors who have used the statute to charge hundreds of Donald Trump supporters who were involved in the January 6 insurrection.
Several other defendants have challenged the law, and many of those challenges are still pending. But Friday’s ruling means the Justice Department’s strategy for charging the Capitol rioters has survived a key test.
Federal Judge Dabney Friedrich denied a request by two rioters to throw out the charge — “obstruction of an official proceeding,” which is often used for things like witness tampering, but has been used in January 6 cases because of the disruption of the Electoral College proceedings before Congress. Lawmakers’ formal certification of President Joe Biden‘s victory was delayed for hours as rioters ransacked the building and fought with police officers.
Friedrich, a Trump appointee, rejected the defendants’ argument that the congressional certification of the Electoral College results was not an “official proceeding.”
“The Joint Session thus has the trappings of a formal hearing before an official body,” Friedrich wrote. “There is a presiding officer, a process by which objections can be heard, debated, and ruled upon, and a decision — the certification of the results — that must be reached before the session can be adjourned. … Accordingly, the congressional certification at issue here is a ‘proceeding before the Congress.'”
She also rejected arguments that the law was unconstitutionally vague and that it only pertains to judicial, not congressional, proceedings.
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https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/10/politics/felony-obstruction-law-january-6-capitol-riot-cases/index.html