Thread by @ZoeTillman

The first substantive challenge to the Jan. 6 prosecutions so far is the argument that the feds overreached in bringing a felony count for obstructing an official proceeding (charged in 250+ cases). @emptywheel has a great thread going on arguments today:

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1422574792000016385

In advance of today's hearing, DOJ filed a doc listing the seven cases where defendants have raised a similar challenge to the obstruction charge (note that some of these involve multiple defendants): s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2103…

Obstruction of an official proceeding is, for many defendants, the only felony and the most serious charge they're facing — it carries a max sentence of up to 20 years. It's what we saw in the case of Paul Hodgkins, the first felony plea to face sentencing buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…

What separates misdemeanor-only cases from obstruction + misdemeanor cases? For Hodgkins, a big thing was that he made it to the Senate floor. For others, they expressed intent to stop Congress from certifying the election. Govt highlighted both of those in case being argued now

Here's the challenge defendant Brady Knowlton lodged to the obstruction count that's being argued today: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2096…

Here's the govt's response defending the application of the charge to the Jan. 6 cases: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2103…