WASHINGTON (EFE).- El United States Supreme Court hear arguments this Tuesday in the case of a defendant in the Congressional assault on January 6, 2021, which might also affect one of the trials that besiege former President Donald Trump.
Joseph Fischer, A former Pennsylvania police officer is one of more than 300 individuals charged by the Government for obstruction of an official proceeding, along with other crimes, when a crowd violently entered the Capitol to interrupt the process of formalizing the Democratic president’s electoral victory. , Joe Biden.
The attackers, incited by Trump, temporarily interrupted the formal process of certifying the result of the November 2020 presidential election in which Biden was the winner.
The Department of Justicewhich alleges that Fischer’s unauthorized presence inside the Capitol building prevented the certification of the election result, has obtained convictions or admissions of guilt for more than 150 participants in the riot.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is carrying out the investigation into Trump’s responsibility in the riot, has included obstruction of an official proceeding among the four charges once morest the now virtual Republican presidential candidate.
Fischer argues that the government’s interpretation of the law is too broad and unprecedented, and maintains that the obstruction of official process clause should apply only to the destruction or tampering of evidence in financial crime cases to which the law originally referred to.
That legislation, known as Ley Sarbanes-Oxley and enacted in 2002, it was the response to the financial and accounting scandal of the energy company Enron whose executives were accused of fraud. The firm ended up in bankruptcy.
So far, 14 of the 15 federal judges in the District of Columbia who have heard cases involving participants in the assault, charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, have allowed the application of that legislation.
The Prosecutor’s Office has indicated that before the attack on the Capitol, Fischer had sent digital messages in which he told acquaintances that members of Congress “can’t vote if they’re not breathing,” and that he might need his police chief “to post bail because there may be violence.”
Likewise, the Prosecutor’s Office maintains that Fischer incited other assailants to “charge and hold the line,” and that he was part of the crowd that pushed the Capitol Police.
Fischer alleges that he arrived at the Capitol following the joint session of Congress, which was supposed to certify the electoral count, had gone into recess, and that he was inside the building for only a few minutes.
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2024-04-27 08:28:40
