(PartiallyPolitics.com) – On Saturday, Conservative attorney George Conway touted the “huge” legal development which could affect former President Donald Trump following the federal appeals court decision to uphold an appeal that had been made so that obstruction charges could be used against rioters who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, presidential election.
Conway, a former Republican, had shared a tweet by former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann in which he commented on the update stating that the appeals court’s decision was an “important legal development” as it will allow Special Counsel Jack Smith to potentially charge Trump.
In a 2-1 vote the three-judge panel decided to uphold the usage of the obstruction charges, throwing out a lower court decision made by Trump-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols.
The obstruction of an official proceeding charge is a felony charge rather than a misdemeanor which can be used against hundreds of defendants that were involved in the U.S. Capitol attack that took place on January 6, 2021. In an email on Saturday, Weissmann claimed that the special counsel would be able to use this court decision in many ways.
As he pointed out, the most practically important change is that the courts have decided on the obstruction law before “any indictment for obstruction is issued against the former president.” He added that even with this decision it is still likely that the DC Circuit and even the Supreme Court may be brought in to rule on the split appeals decision and to decide what “standard needs to be met to separate legitimate First Amendment protected protests and illegal obstructing of Congress.”
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