Fallout from Trump's bid to overturn election loss heads to Supreme
Court
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[April 15, 2024]
By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The actions of Donald Trump and his supporters
following his 2020 election loss top the U.S. Supreme Court's agenda in
the next two weeks in cases involving his bid to avoid prosecution for
trying to undo his defeat and an attempt by a man indicted in the
Capitol attack to escape a charge that Trump also faces.
The two cases assume even greater prominence as Trump campaigns to
return to the White House as the Republican candidate challenging
Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
The justices on Tuesday hear arguments in an appeal by Joseph Fischer,
who was indicted on seven charges following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol
riot including corruptly obstructing an official proceeding -
congressional certification of Biden's victory over Trump. They then
hear arguments on April 25 in Trump's assertion of presidential immunity
from prosecution.
"The court has not yet directly addressed issues related to Jan. 6,"
said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California, Berkeley
School of Law. "But Fischer and Trump so clearly raise issues arising
from Jan. 6."
Trump took numerous steps to try to reverse his 2020 loss. His false
claims of widespread voting fraud helped fuel the attack on the Capitol
as Congress met to certify Biden's victory. Trump and his allies also
devised a plan to use false electors from key states to thwart
certification.
Federal prosecutors brought obstruction charges against about 350 of the
roughly 1,400 people charged in the Capitol attack including Fischer and
Trump. A Supreme Court ruling dismissing the charge against Fischer
could make it more complicated - but not impossible - to make the charge
stick against Trump, according to experts. The charge carries a sentence
of up to 20 years in prison, though Jan. 6 defendants convicted of
obstruction have received far lesser sentences.
This is one of four criminal cases against Trump, whose first trial gets
underway on Monday in New York on charges involving hush money paid to a
porn star. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all of the cases and called
them politically motivated.
The Supreme Court on March 4 reversed a ruling by Colorado's top court
to exclude Trump from the state's ballot under a constitutional
provision involving insurrection. But the justices did not address the
lower court's finding that Trump had created "an atmosphere of political
violence" before the Jan. 6 attack and "engaged in insurrection."
IMMUNITY CLAIM
Until Trump, no former president had faced criminal charges.
Trump has asserted that he has "absolute immunity" because he was
serving as president when he took the actions that triggered Smith's
election subversion indictment. Smith has urged the Supreme Court to
reject that claim on the principle that "no person is above the law."
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U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a rally to
contest the certification of the 2020 U.S. presidential election
results by the U.S. Congress, in Washington, U.S, January 6, 2021.
REUTERS/Jim Bourg/File Photo
In August 2023, Smith brought four federal criminal counts against
Trump in the election subversion case: conspiring to defraud the
United States, corruptly obstructing an official proceeding and
conspiring to do so, and conspiring against the right of Americans
to vote.
Fischer is awaiting trial on six criminal counts, including
assaulting or impeding officers and civil disorder, while he
challenges his obstruction charge at the Supreme Court.
According to prosecutors, Fischer charged at police officers
guarding a Capitol entrance during the attack. Fischer, at the time
a member of the North Cornwall Township police in Pennsylvania, got
inside and pressed up against an officer's riot shield as police
attempted to clear rioters. He remained in the building for four
minutes before police pushed him out.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, dismissed
Fischer's obstruction charge, ruling that it applies only to
defendants who tampered with evidence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia Circuit reversed that decision, ruling that
the law broadly covers "all forms of corrupt obstruction of an
official proceeding."
A Supreme Court decision favoring Fischer could mean that hundreds
of other defendants who faced the same charge could seek to be
re-sentenced, withdraw their guilty pleas or request new trials.
"It may not make a lot of practical difference in most cases because
if defendants were convicted of multiple charges the judge might
decide not to alter the sentence even if the obstruction charge is
gone," said Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor who now
teaches at the George Washington University Law School.
About two-thirds of the Jan. 6 defendants charged with obstruction
also were charged with other felonies.
Eliason said that a win for Fischer might not deter Smith from
pursuing the obstruction charges against Trump, despite the higher
bar that the Supreme Court might set.
"The charges against Trump can probably survive because Smith will
be able to argue that his case did involve evidence-based
obstruction, based on the slates of phony electors," Eliason said.
Legal experts have said the Supreme Court would need to rule by
about June 1 for Trump's trial on the election-related charges to
finish before Nov. 5. If Trump regains the presidency, he could seek
to force an end to the prosecution or potentially pardon himself of
any federal crimes. Trump has pledged to pardon Jan. 6 defendants.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham and Scott Malone)
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