Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential race has led a defendant from the January 6 incident to request a federal judge to postpone his case, citing Trump’s “promise” to pardon several individuals. However, that request was quickly rejected by a federal judge on Wednesday.
Christopher Carnell, an 18-year-old from North Carolina, along with 22-year-old David Worth Bowman, also from North Carolina, rushed the U.S. Capitol during the riot on January 6, 2021. They gained entry by climbing through a door in the Senate Wing. Once inside, Carnell navigated through the crypt and rotunda before entering the Senate chamber, where he interacted with other rioters and discussed documents they discovered on the desks of senators.
In a three-page document submitted to the federal criminal docket in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, he requested the court to reevaluate that hearing. “The Court has asked the parties to present status arguments on Nov. 8, 2024, but as of today, Mr. Carnell is now awaiting further information from the Office of the President-elect regarding the timing and expected scope of clemency actions relevant to his case,” Carnell’s attorney wrote. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell denied the request without providing additional explanation in her ruling. The hearing is scheduled to proceed at 9:30 a.m. on November 8.
Carnell was found guilty during a stipulated bench trial on a single felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, along with several misdemeanors, including entering and remaining in a restricted building and engaging in disorderly and disruptive conduct. The felony charge aligns with the one the Supreme Court narrowed in its Fischer v. United States ruling earlier this year.
In a 6-3 decision, the conservative-majority Supreme Court determined that the statute used to charge January 6 defendants with obstruction of an official proceeding required prosecutors to demonstrate that defendants had obstructed the availability or use of records, documents, or objects involved in an official proceeding. According to the Court, merely disrupting the certification of electoral votes did not fulfill this requirement.
On October 7, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell issued an order vacating the felony obstruction charge against both Carnell and Bowman. Prior to this, Carnell had sought the complete dismissal of the charge. If granted, this dismissal would prevent prosecutors from retrying him for obstruction under the newly narrowed interpretation of the law. Prosecutors opposed the dismissal and requested permission to retry Carnell on the felony charge instead. Unsurprisingly, Carnell’s legal team rejected this proposal, and on October 23, Howell scheduled a status conference for November 8 to discuss how to move forward.
