A lot of legal experts and political pundits are overlooking or looking past a crucial case brought against former President Donald Trump by special counsel Jack Smith that could actually “blow up” in the latter’s face.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy said during an interview Monday with Fox News that, depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court decides, Smith’s so-called “election interference” case against Trump could disintegrate.
Smith indicted Trump in August on four counts related to his actions following the 2020 presidential election. In recent weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case called Fischer v. United States, which centers on an obstruction statute that Smith used to charge Trump, scheduling oral arguments for April, the Daily Caller reported.
“The case to keep your eye on is the obstruction case,” McCarthy told “America’s Newsroom” co-host Bill Hemmer. “We miss it because Trump is not a party to that case. They are looking at the same statute that is key to Smith’s prosecution of Trump in Washington, and if they — as I expect they may, if they — if they say the Justice Department has not been correctly applying that statute, that’s going to have a catastrophic impact for Smith on his indictment.”
The Department of Justice has filed charges against many individuals implicated in the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol building for contravening 18 USC Section 1512(c)(2), which pertains to obstructing or impeding an official proceeding. This violation carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
“The D.C. Circuit’s expansion of Section 1512(c)(2) beyond evidence impairment to protests at the seat of government thus conflicts with the interpretations of other courts of appeal limiting the scope of the same statute,” attorneys for Joseph Fischer, who was charged in connection with the Capitol riot, wrote in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court.
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Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University who discussed the case on CNN last month, also agreed with McCarthy.
“…Next month there’s a centrally important case in the Supreme Court where the court’s going to decide whether the core of Jack Smith’s charges involving obstruction of justice are consistent with the Constitution and the law or not,” he said.
