CNN
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A former Pennsylvania police officer whose US Capitol riot felony case landed on the Supreme Court docket will go to trial subsequent yr, a federal choose mentioned Wednesday.
For months, Joseph Fischer’s case was on pause whereas the excessive court docket thought of whether or not one of many costs he confronted – obstructing an official continuing – was being interpreted improperly when utilized to riot-related felony instances.
Of their ruling this summer time, the 9 justices narrowed the scope of the obstruction regulation, which the Justice Division used to carry obstruction costs towards lots of of January 6 defendants.
The excessive court docket didn’t throw out the obstruction cost towards Fischer however despatched the case again to decrease courts with directions about how you can assess the cost in mild of its June ruling.
When the case returned to federal district court docket on Wednesday, District Choose Carl Nichols mentioned that “what stays of this case” will go to trial in February 2025.
Prosecutor Alexis Loeb mentioned Fischer will face trial on different costs – not together with obstruction. Fischer faces six different costs associated to the riot, together with assaulting regulation enforcement officers and civil dysfunction.
Fischer is alleged to have recorded himself yelling “cost!” and working into the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and mentioned over textual content that that protesters ought to drag Democrats “into the road and have a mob trial.”
Although Nichols acknowledged that bringing the case in entrance of a jury subsequent yr is a “fairly lengthy delay,” he advised attorneys on the case that he would attempt to “speed up” the case ought to he have openings in his trial schedule.
Nichols was the only real choose on the trial-court stage to rule {that a} rioter like Fischer shouldn’t face an obstruction cost as a result of the regulation was meant to narrate particularly to tampering with a doc.
Different judges decided that January 6 rioters might face obstruction costs as a result of they broadly associated to the congressional continuing to certify the election.
The Supreme Court docket’s determination in Fischer was in keeping with Nichols’ ruling two years in the past, tying the obstruction prosecutions to the necessity for prosecutors to point out information, paperwork or different proof used within the Congressional continuing on January 6 was affected by the rioters.
That has prompted Justice Division prosecutors to rewrite some instances towards rioters they’ve been engaged on for years, together with by asking the court docket earlier this week to drop the obstruction conviction of one other rioter, Ethan Seitz.
And the judges within the DC District Court docket have been calling hearings this month to rethink the rioter instances earlier than them in mild of the Supreme Court docket determination.
Almost 1,500 rioters have confronted costs associated to the Capitol riot, with 259 dealing with the obstruction depend that the excessive court docket checked out in Fischer, based on the DOJ. The entire rioters who face costs are being prosecuted on counts along with the obstruction cost, that means none are strolling free from court docket proceedings due to the Supreme Court docket determination.
