With a single swing of a gavel, the DC Appeals Court just upended the DOJ’s work in nailing defendants to the wall in 100 or so Jan 6 cases.
Until now, the court cases for the J6 defendants have been described by those present as having an almost assembly-line quality about them. Judges have been described as looking almost bored by the cases in front of them, and in a hurry to convict and get on to other business.
Whether that description is accurate or not, it gives some sense of the inevitability some defendants must feel with the DOJ throwing the book at them — despite the current Veep having directly helped to raise bail money for rioters who had burned down buildings and assaulted cops.
Larry Brock was charged and convicted for his role in the events of Jan 6. They were brought back on appeal. Much of the case against him was upheld, but the one place he scored a victory was an important one.
It had to do with the sentencing enhancement that was included in his trial. Since he was deemed to have ‘interfered’ with the ‘administration of justice’, the DOJ found another statute to apply to his case that would make him sit in jail for longer than he otherwise might.
The use of that enhancement in these circumstances was challenged, and all three judges in the DC Court of Appeals (Democrat-appointed, each of them) agreed with the defendant’s objection.
That enhancement did not belong in the sentencing. He needs to go back before the sentencing judge so the ruling against him can be adjusted accordingly.
The PDF of the full ruling can be found at this link.
Some points of interest for anyone looking through the document:
Page 19/20 — discussion about the scope of ‘administration of justice’
Page 25 — Certification of electoral college votes does not qualify for that definition
Page 31 — Consequences of an over-broad definition of admin. of justice
Page 34/35 — proper use and misuse of sentencing enhancement
The closing thoughts from that ruling, beginning on page 36, are as follows:
Because Section 2J1.2’s text, commentary, and context establish that the “administration of justice” does not extend to Congress’s counting and certification of electoral college votes, the district court erred in applying Section 2J1.2(b)(2)’s three-level sentencing enhancement to Brock’s Section 1512(c)(2) conviction. IV For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Brock’s conviction under 18 U.S.C § 1512(c)(2), but we vacate Brock’s sentence for his Section 1512(c)(2) conviction and remand to the district USCA court for resentencing without the application of Section 2J1.2(b)(2)’s sentencing enhancement. So ordered
Psalms of War: Prayers That Literally Kick Ass is a collection, from the book of Psalms, regarding how David rolled in prayer. I bet you haven’t heard these read, prayed, or sung in church against our formidable enemies — and therein lies the Church’s problem. We’re not using the spiritual weapons God gave us to waylay the powers of darkness. It might be time to dust them off and offer ‘em up if you’re truly concerned about the state of Christ’s Church and of our nation.
Also included in this book, Psalms of War, are reproductions of the author’s original art from his Biblical Badass Series of oil paintings.
This is a great gift for the prayer warriors. Real. Raw. Relevant.
