'Another devastating number'

'Infertility is all but guaranteed'

'My thoughts are first and foremost with Albert and Paul’s loved ones'

'Deviates from the uniform conclusion'

'Yes, Mr. Kennedy met with President Trump'

'What is the deal with all the aliens?'

'at the forefront during the convention'

'I didn’t talk to Biden'

The Department of Justice is taking steps to preserve charges against Jan. 6 defendants after the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to its efforts. After the Supreme Court issued a ruling June 28 limiting the scope of an obstruction statute used to charge hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the DOJ would “continue to use all available tools to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy.” Since then, the DOJ has taken first steps to salvage its charges, including asking judges for additional time to evaluate the impact of the ruling while stressing that the Supreme Court did not entirely reject its use of the statute. The statute, Section 1512(c)(2), holds up to 20 years in prison for anyone who “obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding.” However, the Supreme Court held in Fischer v. United States that to charge an individual under the law, “the Government must establish that the defendant impaired the availability or integrity for use in an official proceeding of records, documents, objects, or as we earlier explained, other things used in the proceeding, or attempted to do so.” More than 355 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with “corruptly obstructing, influencing, or impeding an official proceeding,” according to the DOJ. “The DOJ is not happy about the Fischer decision and is currently strategizing ways to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling,” criminal defense attorney David W. Fischer wrote Wednesday for the blog “Declassified With Julie Kelly.” For example, in certain cases the DOJ may attempt to recharge using corrected charging language in indictments, which will claim that particular defendants targeted the ceremonial ballot box or other documents used by Congress during the January 6 certification. Creative charging language, however, doesn’t change the evidence, which is quite strong that none of the J6ers were targeting evidence. In a number of cases, the DOJ is now asking for additional time to evaluate how the ruling will apply. “The Supreme Court remanded Fischer to the D.C. Circuit for further proceedings and to assess the sufficiency of the indictment on that count,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves wrote Thursday in defendant Taylor Franklin Taranto’s case. “Based on the Supreme Court’s opinion and the forthcoming proceedings in the D.C. Circuit, the government anticipates that it will need additional time to evaluate its prosecution of charges under 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2).” Graves’ office wrote Tuesday in defendant Tara Stottlemyer’s case that her conduct “may very well meet the changed standard” for the statute, noting that the “government is still evaluating Fischer’s impact on this and other January 6 cases.” Prosecutors cited Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s concurring opinion, which noted that it “it might well be that Fischer’s conduct, as alleged here, involved the impairment (or the attempted impairment) of the availability or integrity of things used during the January 6 proceeding.” “If so, then Fischer’s prosecution under §1512(c)(2) can, and should, proceed,” Jackson wrote. Jackson joined the majority in the case to limit the statute’s scope, while Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the dissent, which was joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Criminal defense attorney William Shipley, who represents Stottlemyer, wrote on X that the DOJ’s efforts to delay are “very frustrating for Tara and other J6 defendants who rightfully see Fischer as a victory that is now being withheld from them by procedural games.” However, some defendants have already seen relief. Judges granted several defendants, including Kevin Seefried, Alexander Sheppard and Thomas B. Adams Jr., early release before the Supreme Court even issued its ruling. The DOJ stated Wednesday in a filing it would not yet request Adams’ return to custody. A federal judge also granted defendant Jorge Riley release on Friday pending the resolution of his motion to vacate his sentence. The DOJ did not oppose Riley’s request, though it declined to concede he had a “meritorious claim” under the Supreme Court’s ruling. “In short, the United States’ decision to not oppose Riley’s motion for release should in no way be understood as a waiver or concession regarding the merits of Riley’s Section 2255 claims, collateral attacks based on Fischer generally, or any other January 6 case that may (or may not) be impacted by Fischer,” Graves wrote Thursday. Likewise, the DOJ did not oppose defendant Katharine Morrison’s motion to terminate her special condition of home detention on Wednesday, but emphasized it should not be “construed as a concession” that she has a claim under Fischer. Prosecutors requested dismissal of the obstruction count Friday in defendant Mark Sahady’s case to enable the trial to proceed in August on other counts and to “promote judicial economy and efficiency.” “The vast majority of the more than 1,400 defendants charged for their illegal actions on January 6 will not be affected by this decision,” Garland noted in his statement after the Supreme Court’s ruling. “There are no cases in which the Department charged a January 6 defendant only with the offense at issue in Fischer.” The DOJ did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Biden DOJ Aims to Salvage Jan. 6 Charges After Major Blow at Supreme Court appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Left-wing smears of Project 2025 constitute “probably the greatest misinformation campaign since the Russia hoax,” the head of the initiative for the next conservative president said Monday at The Heritage Foundation’s Policy Fest at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project for Heritage, was referring to the eventually debunked allegations that Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the presidency in 2016. Dans spoke at the Policy Fest on the first day of the RNC, which will run through Thursday when Trump is scheduled to accept the party’s nomination for a third time. The purpose of Project 2025 is “to bring our [conservative] movement together,” Dans said. “We’re 110 conservative organizations who have really committed ourselves to making America a government of by and for the people,” Dans said. “Over the last 100 years, the progressives have built an administrative state and it’s ruled by a class of experts, as Sen. [Mike] Lee was saying. And really, it’s the anti-democracy at work.” President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign launched a website dedicated to attacking Project 2025 and has posted what Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and others call baseless claims about the policy initiative, including falsely asserting that Project 2025 seeks to “terminate the Constitution.” Organized by Heritage but including contributions from over 100 other conservative groups, the 2025 Presidential Transition Project (its full name) aims to equip an incoming conservative presidential administration with policies to rein in the size and power of the U.S. government’s bureaucracy. Project 2025 provides a “solution set” to take on the government’s deep state, Heritage’s Dans said, and is a call for Americans to take back control of their own government. “This is really a way for us to make sure, when we ultimately get in the driver’s seat, that we’re ready to move out because this whole system has been built by the Left, and even when we win, we can still lose if we aren’t working to put the policies in place,” he said. Project 2025 isn’t running for president, Trump is, Dans said. “We’re a group of private citizens advocating for better government,” he said. The post ‘Greatest Misinformation Campaign Since Russia Hoax’: Project 2025 Director Counters Lies appeared first on The Daily Signal.