Justice Department drops nearly half of pending obstruction charges in J6 cases

The Justice Department (DOJ) has dropped nearly half of the remaining obstruction charges that are still pending against January 6 defendants, according to recent DOJ data. 

The Supreme Court in June made it more difficult to charge the defendants with obstruction, but charges can still be brought if prosecutors can prove that rioters were intentionally trying to stop the arrival of certificates used to certify electoral votes.

The department said last week that it has already dropped the charge in approximately 60 of the 126 defendants whose cases were still pending. It is still going to charge 13 of the defendants with obstruction, and is still examining the other cases. 

In the cases that have already been tried, the DOJ said it does not object to dismissing the charge in 40 of the 133 cases, but it is still reviewing the rest. One person has had their sentence reduced so far, over the Supreme Court ruling.

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

Although there were no cases where a defendant was only charged with obstruction, there have been 17 defendants that were solely convicted of obstruction, and were serving a prison sentence as of Aug. 6.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.