Our political discourse these days has been focused on three key words – obstruction of justice. Whatever your politics may be, these words and the law surrounding obstruction of justice are important to understand.
We do not know if the country will have to endure another impeachment process, but obstruction of justice will be a critical part of the investigation. After all, the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon and President Clinton focused on this same exact concept.
Obstruction of justice is any interference with the orderly administration of law and justice. Assuming that the current reports are accurate, I thought it would be helpful to outline the federal law surrounding obstruction of justice. In this situation, the key statute is Title 18 of the United States Code Section 1512, which applies to the obstruction of federal proceedings – judicial, congressional or executive.
Section 1503 is intended to prohibit obstruction of judicial proceedings. However, prosecutors have used the “catch-all” language in Section 1503 to charge criminal obstruction for non-coercive conduct intended to obstruct the due administration of justice. See United States v. Aguilar, 515 U.S. 593 (1995).
Section 1503(a) provides in pertinent part:
Whoever . . . corruptly . . . influences, obstructs or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
While Section provides for a broad application of conduct, the violation must have some nexus to a pending grand jury or judicial proceeding. See United States v. Quattrone, 441 F.3d 153, 170 (2nd Cir. 2006). Such proof in the case of the Russia investigation may not be very difficult to establish.
Section 1512 also includes a broad, catch-all obstruction of justice crime, although there is some suggestion that such conduct must relate to destruction or concealment of documentary evidence. As part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Congress expanded the reach of Section 1512 beyond witness tampering by including a general obstruction prohibition whose reach is not yet clear but which appears to be even broader in scope than the omnibus clause of Section 1503. Section 1512(k) includes a provision prohibiting conspiracies to obstruct justice in Section 1512(k).
As we learn more about the facts being investigated by Special Counsel Mueller, Section 1512 (c)(2) might be a focus of any decision as to criminal liability.
Section 1512(c) provides:
Whoever corruptly –
(1) alters, destroys, mutilates, or conceals a record, document, or other object, or attempts to do so, with the intent to impair the object’s integrity or availability for use in an official proceeding; or
(2) otherwise obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under...
