Jan. 6 Defendant Petitions Supreme Court Over Section 1512(c)(2) Charge

On July 31, lawyers representing Garret Miller, a man arrested for crimes related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, petitioned the Supreme Court to challenge the Department of Justice’s application of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c) to Jan. 6 defendants. The lawyers, David B. Smith and Nicholas D. Smith, argued that § 1512(c) obstruction of justice offenses have exclusively applied to conduct that is “intended to affect the integrity or availability of evidence used in an inquiry or investigation” for the past forty years. They argued that, because the Congressional electoral vote count “does not invoke the legislature’s power of inquiry,” and Miller did not tamper with evidence, § 1512(c)(2) should not apply to Miller’s case and others like it. Additionally, Smith and Smith argued that Miller did not act “with a wrongful or immoral purpose,” since he did not intend to affect “the integrity or availability of evidence.”