Today, our firm filed an amicus brief on the merits opposing the Biden Justice Department’s use of the Sarbanes-Oxley anti-shredding statute against the January 6 defendants. The statute, which can be used to impose sentences of up to 20 years in prison, was passed in the wake of the Enron document shredding scandal, but is now being used by the Biden DOJ as a cudgel to obtain guilty pleas or severe sentences to send a message to the political opponents of the current administration. Previously, we filed the only amicus brief in support of Fischer’s petition for certiorari. Our amicus brief argued that the DOJ’s application of the anti-shredding statute to the January 6 defendants is a new interpretation of that law that expands it far beyond its language and purpose. Our brief explained that the courts below have adopted a narrative of the events of January 6, 2021 that is not true, but is a fiction being used to severely punish the protestors that were in D.C. that day. Finally, our brief argued that the DOJ’s new interpretation of the statute violates the First Amendment rights of speech, assembly, and petition.
