According to the Justice Department, Joseph Fischer texted his boss before the January 6 insurrection to tell him that he might need to post bail. The accused insurrectionist also allegedly warned that the protest at the US Capitol “might get violent,” and he allegedly wrote that “they should storm the capital and drag all the democrates [sic] into the street and have a mob trial.”
When the day of the insurrection came, Fischer allegedly yelled “Charge!” before running and crashing into a line of police inside the Capitol. The Justice Department says that video footage “shows at least one police officer on the ground after [Fischer’s] assault.” Fischer was only in the Capitol for four minutes, according to the DOJ, before he was “forcibly removed.”
Fischer was arrested after the FBI identified him based on a video he posted on Facebook that showed him inside the Capitol on January 6.
More than three years later, however, Fischer has yet to be tried. The criminal proceeding against him has been tied up in appeals after a Trump-appointed trial judge ruled that one of the criminal laws Fischer is charged with violating must be read very narrowly. That ruling is now being reviewed by the Supreme Court, in a case called Fischer v. United States.
The Supreme Court will hear this case next month.
The statute at issue in Fischer provides that anyone who “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so” commits a serious federal crime and can be imprisoned for up to 20 years. (In practice, someone convicted under this statute will likely receive far less than a 20-year sentence. Federal judges normally rely on guidelines written by the US Sentencing Commission when handing down criminal penalties, rather than mechanically issuing the maximum sentence.)
According to the Justice Department, “approximately 330 defendants have been charged with violating” this statute after the January 6 insurrection. One of…
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