DOJ Drops Half of All Pending J6 ‘Obstruction’ Charges

In a major blow to the Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ), nearly half of all “obstruction” charges related to January 6th, 2021 have been dropped.

As Just The News reports, the DOJ’s decision comes after a major ruling by the Supreme Court in June, which ruled that the “obstruction of an official proceeding” charge could not be used against protesters who were at the Capitol that day unless it can be explicitly proven that they were trying to stop the certification of the electoral votes from the 2020 election.

The DOJ’s announcement saw the charges dropped from 60 of the remaining 126 defendants’ cases. The agency insisted that it would still charge 13 particular defendants with obstruction. Furthermore, the DOJ decided to dismiss the obstruction charge from 40 of the 133 cases that have already been tried. One prisoner has seen his sentence reduced as a result of the dismissal of the obstruction charge.

“There are zero cases where a defendant was charged only for violating 18 U.S.C. § 1512,” the DOJ noted in its statement. “In other words, even if the government foregoes this charge, every charged defendant will continue to face exposure to other criminal charges.”

However, despite the DOJ’s insistence that no one has been charged with only the obstruction charge, there are currently 17 defendants who were only convicted of the obstruction charge, all of whom are currently serving prison sentences.