The probe will look into why prosecutors brought a felony charge against hundreds of people.
A U.S. prosecutor said on Jan. 27 that he’s investigating why federal prosecutors brought a felony obstruction charge against hundreds of people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, in an internal email ordered a review of the matter, directing employees to hand over related files, emails, and other documents.
Martin wrote that the use of the charge, obstruction of an official proceeding, was “a great failure of our office.” He ordered the supervisors to provide a preliminary report on the matter to him by Jan. 31.
“We need to get to the bottom of it,” Martin wrote.
He’s calling it the “1512 Project,” because the offense falls under that section of the law.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ), did not respond to a request for more information.
Section 1512 of the U.S. Code prohibits people from obstructing, influencing, or impeding any official proceeding or attempting to do so. It carries a prison term of up to 20 years.
Prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington charged about 260 people who were in or around the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with obstructing an official proceeding.
Former police officer Joseph Fischer, one of the accused, challenged the charge in court. That led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that concluded that prosecutors were interpreting the law too broadly.
“On the Government’s theory, Section 1512(c) consists of a granular subsection (c)(1) focused on obstructive acts that impair evidence and an overarching subsection (c)(2) that reaches all other obstruction,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “Even setting surplusage aside, that novel interpretation would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison.”
Before President Donald Trump took office, the government dropped the charge or asked the courts to vacate the charge against most of the defendants or convicts.
Trump pardoned about 1,500 people who had been charged over the Jan. 6, 2021, breach.
