by WorldTribune Staff, July 16, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
Two J6ers who were imprisoned after being convicted of the controversial obstruction of Congress charge have been ordered released by federal judges following the Supreme Court’s ruling that the charge could only be applied if the Department of Justice could prove defendants impaired the use of documents, objects, or “other things” used during counting of Electoral College votes at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
John Strand, serving a 32-month prison sentence on the §1512(c)(2) obstruction of Congress charge, announced on social media on Monday that Judge Christopher R. Cooper has ordered his release.
IT’S OFFICIAL — I am being released from prison after my Motion for Release was approved by the Judge.
I am so thankful for everyone who supported me during this difficult time. #JusticeforJ6! pic.twitter.com/icnTpdcRS5
— 𝐉𝐎𝐇𝐍⚔️𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃 (@JohnStrandUSA) July 15, 2024
Strand’s attorney, Nicholas Smith, had contended that there was nothing introduced at trial showing Strand committed evidence impairment. Even if there was such evidence, Smith wrote, it would have to be charged under §1512(c)(1), which was not among Strand’s counts.
Judge Cooper had said in February of this year that if the Supreme Court were to toss out §1512(c)(2), “Strand’s conviction under the same statute would likely be reversed as well because there is no evidence he engaged in any such conduct on January 6, 2021.”
Jorge Aaron Riley, serving an 18-month sentence on the obstruction charge, had his request for bail pending resolution of a motion to vacate the sentence granted via an order issued July 12 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C.
Riley was arrested in January 2021 and later indicted on five criminal counts, including the obstruction felony charge and misdemeanors related to alleged trespassing on Capitol grounds. In March 2023, he accepted a plea deal on the one obstructing count.
Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, the DOJ apparently is not giving up on using the charge against J6ers, Joseph Hanneman reported for Blaze Media on July 12.
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“Although many Jan. 6 defendants and their attorneys hailed the Supreme Court ruling as a victory, it appears that the DOJ is not giving up on making the felony charge stick. In numerous court filings since June 28, prosecutors expressed the view that the Supreme Court did not ban them from using §1512(c)(2), a law enacted in 2002 to fight corporate fraud after the Enron accounting scandal,” Hanneman wrote.
In court filings after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the DOJ appears to have made new allegations. Responding to probationer Tara Stottlemyer’s motion to vacate her §1512(c)(2) conviction, prosecutors said she “intended to stop the certification proceeding and affect the voting and balloting underlying the certification.”
Defense attorney William Shipley said this approach is not going to work. He filed a motion to compel the government to produce grand jury testimony proving Stottlemyer impaired documents or records used in the counting of Electoral College votes.
“There can be no dispute that the second superseding indictment did not describe in any fashion records, documents, objects or ‘other things’ being impaired or otherwise manipulated by Ms. Stottlemyer at any time on January 6, 2021,” Shipley wrote on July 5.
Shipley said the motion was filed “on the grounds that the failure to offer testimony about ‘evidence impairment’ is now exculpatory if the government suddenly has some magic evidence or theory to try and salvage these convictions.”
A sentencing hearing for Thomas E. Caldwell, who was found guilty in November 2022 in the first Oath Keepers trial of obstruction of an official proceeding and tampering with documents or proceedings, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 22. Caldwell was found not guilty of three other counts.
Defense attorney David Fischer said he plans to file a renewed motion for acquittal on Caldwell’s obstruction charge. Before the Supreme Court ruling in the Fischer case, prosecutors said they would ask Judge Mehta to sentence Caldwell to 14 years in prison.
“The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to the DOJ’s over-zealous prosecution of Tom Caldwell and other J6ers,” Fischer told Blaze News. “We will be requesting that the court reconsider its earlier denial of our motion for acquittal and find Tom not guilty. Tom Caldwell is literally the Richard Jewell of January 6.”
Jewell was a security guard falsely accused of taking part in the bombing of the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. Despite helping clear the area around a suspicious backpack that detonated a short time later, Jewell fell under FBI suspicion and the resulting hail of negative media coverage. He was later exonerated.
After Supreme Court ruling on obstruction charge, some J6ers ordered released, but DOJ ‘not giving up’ added by Editor Two on July 16, 2024
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