“Corrupt Obstruction” Before the D.C. Circuit
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2022
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
On Monday, the D.C. Circuit heard oral argument in the case United States v Fischer—one of the most important cases we've seen in a while relating to criminal prosecutions for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The case is about a previously obscure statute, at least in this context, that criminalizes corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding, and it’s a charge that DOJ has brought against hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters. Lawfare legal fellow Saraphin Dhanani attended the argument, and Lawfare executive editor Natalie Orpett sat down with her to discuss what the parties argued, how the judges responded, and what might happen to the charge of corrupt obstruction of an official proceeding.
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Transcript
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| 0:29.0 | To the government's credit, they did mention that there are other |
| 0:37.0 | limiting factors as well, including nexus requirement and the |
| 0:41.0 | official proceeding requirement, though they didn't get into that, because I think |
| 0:45.0 | the the mensuraya was just such a thorny issue |
| 0:49.0 | and across all three judges, it was, it was really talked up and |
| 0:55.0 | discussed at length. The judge pan and cazis to some extent, I would say, were |
| 1:01.0 | unconvinced by defense counsel's argument. |
| 1:03.0 | This is where there was quite a bit of back and forth between judge pan and defense |
| 1:07.0 | counsel. She made clear that the issue of corruptly was |
| 1:11.0 | not before the court. The issue even at one point suggested that the court would |
| 1:15.0 | need supplemental briefing to decide the issue and judge walker noted that the case can be |
| 1:20.0 | remanded back down judge Nichols to decide, and so I think that in so far as |
| 1:26.0 | the mensuraya requirement is an issue, it's not going anywhere. |
| 1:30.0 | I'm Natalie Orpet, executive editor of LawFair, and this is the LawFair |
| 1:36.0 | podcast to December 13th, 2022. |
| 1:40.0 | Yesterday morning, the DC Circuit heard oral argument in the case United States |
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