The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to out a “stake in the heart” of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against Donald Trump, according to respected legal experts.
Legal analyst Jeffrey Rosen, a law professor at George Washington University, told CNN on Saturday that if the Supreme Court finds in favor of the defendant, it will be a significant victory for President Trump and make things more difficult for the special counsel.
“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 Constitution and the law or not,” he told CNN. “If they throw those out, that’s going to be a stake in the heart of the Jack Smith case. It won’t prevent it, but it’ll make it much harder to pursue.”
Rosen also explained how the timing of Smith’s case against Trump could be disrupted.
“The Jack Smith timing depends on, first, what the Supreme Court does—is it going to rehear immunity or just uphold the D.C. circuit?” Rosen said. “But then 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.”
The CNN legal analyst also noted that if the Supreme Court justices “side with Fischer, it would also call into question the use of the law against other Jan. 6 defendants—including Trump.”
The case is called Joseph W. Fischer v. United States, and it pertains to the argued misapplication of 18 U.S.C. § 1512, obstruction of an official proceeding, to January 6 cases.
Fritz Ulrich, a lawyer for defendant Fischer, told Newsweek that he will “argue for a narrow construction of Section 1512(c)(2) consistent with its language and Congress’ expressed purpose in enacting it.”
“As far as the effect on the other January 6 cases that have a Section 1512(c)(2) count, nothing will happen at the argument that would affect them,” Ulrich said. “But we may be able to discern how some of the justices view the statutory language at issue.”
Earlier in February, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) joined 23 other senators in urging the Supreme Court to overturn the Biden administration’s legal tactic of utilizing the law to target Jan. 6 defendants, including Fischer.
“The Biden administration’s pursuit of its political opponents must be stopped,” the Arkansas Republican said in a statement. “Their strained interpretation of the law would criminalize vast swaths of everyday political conduct and violate the First Amendment—Congress never granted, and no administration should have the power to lock up political opponents for 20 years for merely trying to ‘influence’ Congress.”
Last Monday, the Supreme Court scheduled arguments for April 16 in the case involving Joseph Fischer, who was arrested on January 6, 2021.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on April 16 the a challenge to the Department of Justice’s interpretation of the “obstruction of an official proceeding” charge that both Fischer and President Trump are facing.
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