Supreme Court divided over key charge against Jan. 6 rioters and Trump

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Conservatives including Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Samuel A. Alito Jr. expressed concern about giving prosecutors too much power.

The Supreme Court appeared deeply divided Tuesday over whether prosecutors improperly stretched federal law to charge hundreds of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — a decision that will impact those rioters and, potentially, Donald Trump’s election interference trial in D.C.

Several, including Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Samuel A. Alito Jr., expressed concern through a series of hypothetical scenarios about giving prosecutors broad power that they suggested would allow the government to target peaceful protesters, disruptive hecklers or someone who pulls a fire alarm to delay a vote in Congress.

unanticipated methods of impeding an official proceeding — like occupying the Capitol building and forcing the suspension of Congress’s joint session certifying the election results. The word “otherwise” means “in a different manner,” she said. The case was brought by Joseph W. Fischer, an off-duty Pennsylvania police officer who attended the Jan. 6

Although Trump’s name was not mentioned once during oral argument, the obstruction charges against the former president are based in part on allegations that he schemed with others to submit to Congress slates of phony electors from swing states and to get lawmakers to toss out lawful ballots.

 

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