Weeks after the Supreme Court narrowed how the Justice Department can pursue obstruction charges against January 6 rioters, federal prosecutors are beginning to offer retooled plea deals or drop that specific charge against members of the mob that attacked the US Capitol.
These developments are slowly trickling out in court filings, as prosecutors make clear that they plan to continue holding the rioters accountable within the constraints of the justices’ decision.
According to Justice Department statistics, there were roughly 259 defendants facing the obstruction charge – a federal statute that makes it a crime to obstruct an official proceeding – when the high court issued its ruling that narrowed how the law can be applied.
Among those individuals are five alleged members of the Proud Boys organization, though they aren’t accused of being leaders or coordinating the far-right group’s alleged plot to breach the US Capitol. They are Arthur Jackman, Edward George Jr., Paul Rae and the father-and-son duo of Kevin and Nate Tuck.
In a court filing Monday, prosecutors said that each defendant has been offered a plea deal that does not include the obstruction charge. Should they decline that deal, prosecutors said, they would move to dismiss the charge and take the men to trial on other alleged crimes.
If prosecutors elected not to drop the obstruction charge, there would likely be lengthy litigation over whether the obstruction charge could be presented to a jury.
The Supreme Court opinion gave the DOJ room to bring the charge against some rioters who attempted to impact “documents” and “other things” used in an official proceeding, and prosecutors would have to prove that each defendant falls into that category by connecting them to the Electoral College certificates that Congress was certifying on January 6, 2021.
Prosecutors already moved to dismiss the charge against some defendants, including Mark Sahady, a Massachusetts man who runs a “straight pride” group, and Beverly Hills salon owner Gina Bisignano.
In Bisignano’s case, prosecutors wrote in court filings that they would “need additional time to evaluate its prosecution” of the obstruction charge and are electing to drop the charge in the aim of keeping their current trial date.
The Supreme Court’s Fischer v. United States ruling in the January 6 obstruction case vindicated claims from some of the rioters’ attorneys that prosecutors had overcharged their clients. But the immediate relief for most charged rioters will be quite limited.
There are only 17 people – or less than 2% of the roughly 1,400 Capitol riot defendants – who were convicted of the obstruction charge and weren’t convicted of other felonies, and are currently serving prison time.
As for defendants already convicted of the charge, the Justice Department says that 130 people have been convicted and sentenced for obstructing an official proceeding, though more than half those individuals were also convicted of additional felonies.
In a few cases, judges have allowed rioters who were convicted of the obstruction charge to be released from jail while they file appeals.
Kevin Seefried, a Delaware man who was infamously photographed carrying a large Confederate flag inside the US Capitol during the riot, is one of those defendants. Obstruction is the only felony Seefried was convicted of, and a judge sentenced him to nearly three years in prison.
In a statement posted online, the Justice Department said that it “will be reviewing individual cases against the standards articulated in Fischer, as well as the anticipated ongoing proceedings related to Fischer in the D.C. Circuit, to determine whether the government will proceed with the charge.”
