the Biden administration's department of justice has dropped nearly half of the obstruction charges pending against January 6 defendants following a significant Supreme Court ruling in June according to recent data in June the Supreme Court determined that the doj had applied an overly broad interpretation of a statute that imposes up to 20 years in prison for those who corruptly obstruct influence or impede any official proceeding since the ruling in Fischer versus United States about 60 of 126 defendants had their pending obstruction charges dismissed Based on doj data released on September six of the 133 defendants whose cases were already resolved before the fiser decision the doj indicated it does not oppose dismissal or vacature of the charges in approximately 40 cases while it continues to assess the rest the doj clarified that no defendant has been charged solely under the obstruction statute meaning all defendants will still face other criminal charges even if the obstruction charge is dropped in their case the government is also still pursuing obstruction charges for at least 13 defendants and evaluating its next steps in those remaining cases the Supreme Court's decision emphasized that prosecutors must show that a defendant disrupted the availability or Integrity of materials used in an official proceeding to prove a violation of the obstruction statute Justice katangi Brown Jackson an appointee of Biden suggested that the charges could still move forward in cases that involve tampering with or attempting to tamper with evidence used in the January 6 proceedings I'm kayin de for the Washington [Music] Examiner for