These obstructions felonies have been unfairly assigned, and some are starting to realize this. Let’s continue to pray for truth and justice.

From American Greatness. A Massachusetts man on Friday was charged with a felony related to his participation in the protest at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Mark Sahady already faced misdemeanors for his nonviolent and brief jaunt through the building that afternoon, but the Justice Department decided to add the common “obstruction of an official proceeding” charge to Sahady’s case on April 7.

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That same day, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia threw Sahady—and more than 300 January 6 defendants charged with the same obstruction felony—a potential lifeline. In what one judge described as a “splintered decision,” a three-judge panel narrowly reversed a lower court ruling that tossed the obstruction count against three Capitol protesters. D.C. District Court Judge Carl Nichols dismissed the charge last year largely based on the argument that the statute “requires that the defendant have taken some action with respect to a document, record, or other object in order to corruptly obstruct, impede or influence an official proceeding.”

A fair reading of the law proves Nichols is correct. …

When he signed the bill into law in 2002, President George W. Bush, as I explained here, noted that the word “corruptly” would compel the government to prove a defendant’s “criminal state of mind” and the overall provision must not infringe “on the constitutional right to petition the Government for redress of grievances.”

But that hasn’t prevented Attorney General Merrick Garland from weaponizing the statute … for more than two years. Dozens of defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial. Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman,” spent months in solitary confinement and was denied bail before Garland’s prosecutors successfully tormented him into pleading guilty to obstruction. Judge Royce Lamberth, who repeatedly denied his release, sentenced Chansley to 41 months in prison. …

In fact, every judge on the D.C. District Court has uniformly denied motions to dismiss the obstruction charge. So when Nichols courageously bucked his colleagues’ groupthink, the Justice Department appealed. Oral arguments were presented in December. Nicholas Smith, currently defending Ethan Nordean in the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial, represented the January 6 defendants in the appeal.

At the very least, the clear-as-mud opinion handed down by the appellate panel underscores the conformity, if not sheer laziness, of the district judges’ arguments. The 107-page order takes a number of legal twists and turns before reaching what is essentially three different opinions.

In reversing Nichols’ order, Judge Florence Pan, appointed to the appellate bench by Joe Biden in March 2021, concluded that “the meaning of the statute is unambiguous.” Pan explained why the charge should stick—at least in the cases of the three defendants named in the appeal who also face assault charges.

“The statutory definition of ‘official proceeding’ under 1512(c)(2) includes a ‘proceeding before the Congress,’” Pan wrote. “Although [January 6 defendants] strain to argue that the Electoral College vote certification is not a ‘proceeding before the Congress’ because it does not involve ‘investigations and evidence,’ we see no such limit in the ordinary meaning of the word ‘proceeding.’” …

Much of the controversy in the opinion centered on the legal interpretation of the word “corruptly.” Judge Justin R. Walker, a Trump appointee, added a detailed caveat to his partial concurrence. “If I did not read ‘corruptly’ narrowly, I would join the dissenting opinion,” Walker explained. “I would give ‘corruptly’ its long-standing meaning. It requires a defendant to act ‘with an intent to procure an unlawful benefit either for himself or for some other person.’ Because I read ‘corruptly’ as courts have read it for hundreds of years—and only because I read it that way—I concur in the Court’s judgment.”

And therein lies the big headache for the Justice Department. What, for example, was the “unlawful benefit” Chansley sought during his peaceful walk through the Capitol on January 6? …

The Justice Department intentionally exploited the statute’s vague language while ignoring its context, and the D.C. District Court, with the exception of Judge Nichols, allowed it for more than two years. …

True justice will only be served when gutless judges on the district court finally start to toss this bogus charge or the higher court delivers a well-deserved smackdown in a final decision. …

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(Excerpt from American Greatness. Photo Credit: Getty Images)