Democrat President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) improperly handed down extended sentences to Jan. 6 defendants, a federal appeals court has ruled.
On Friday, a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel found that some Jan. 6 defendants’ sentences were wrongly lengthened.
Extended sentences were wrongly applied when judges determined the defendants interfered “with the administration of justice,” the appeals court found.
The court sided with Jan. 6 defendant Larry Brock.
The panel rejected the DOJ’s argument that a sentencing enhancement designed for defendants who disrupt judicial proceedings should be applied to defendants who disrupted Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election.
Last year, Brock was sentenced to two years in prison for obstructing an official proceeding.
Judge Patricia Millett, an Obama appointee, stated that the charges were wrongly applied.
The judge wrote in the opinion:
“We must apply the Guideline as written, and Brock’s interference with one stage of the electoral college vote-counting process— while no doubt endangering our democratic processes and temporarily derailing Congress’s constitutional work — did not interfere with the “administration of justice.”
The panel also included judges Cornelia Pillard and Judith Rogers.
Pillard is an Obama appointee while Rogers was appointed by Bill Clinton.
JUST IN: The D.C. Circuit has ruled that some Jan. 6 defendants had their sentences improperly lengthened by district judges' decisions to label their crimes "interference with the administration of justice." https://t.co/Yzz8QDhysW pic.twitter.com/9HCchVa8H4
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) March 1, 2024
The panel found that the “administration of justice” applies to “judicial, quasi-judicial, and adjunct investigative proceedings.”
However, they noted that the charge “does not extend to the unique congressional function of certifying electoral college votes.”
The enhancement can increase sentences by over a year, according to Politico.
In April, the Supreme Court will hear a case challenging the scope of the obstruction statute, Section 1512(c)(2).
The statute was used to charge hundreds of defendants, including Brock.
The news comes as Biden’s FBI arrested an independent reporter on Friday for covering Jan. 6.
Video shows FBI agents escorting a handcuffed Steve Baker, an investigative reporter at The Blaze.
The FBI issued a signed arrest warrant ordering Baker to self-surrender Friday to a Dallas courthouse relating to his presence at the riot, according to Baker’s Twitter thread from Tuesday.
He also detailed the order in a podcast with Glenn Beck.
WATCH:
Baker worked as an independent journalist at the time and said he did not commit any property damage.
He only entered the U.S. Capitol building after the Senate and House were evacuated, according to Baker’s Oct. 2, 2023 piece on the matter.
Two agents can be seen in the video walking a handcuffed Baker to a dark grey vehicle and seating him in the backseat Friday morning.
WATCH:
Blaze Media Investigative Journalist @TPC4USA has now been taken into FBI custody for his J6 reporting
Watch: pic.twitter.com/OF9WVh26ER
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) March 1, 2024
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