M.L. Nestel joined Raw Story in 2023. An award-winning writer and editor, his work has been published in New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and The Guardian, among other titles. He also produces and writes for true-crime genre TV shows. Prior to that, he served on the Newsweek masthead as a senior writer, wrote as a correspondent at ABC News and held the titles of West Coast bureau chief and senior writer at The Daily Beast. Priors also include working as senior national correspondent at The Daily Mail and investigative reporter at all three NYC tabloids: The New York Post,The New York Daily News and Newsday. He traveled around the country as a national correspondent at The Daily. M.L. published hundreds of stories about underground music and cinema — most notably as a critic for Box Office Magazine and the New York editor at Soma Magazine. He also headed development at Fountainhead Films. M.L. splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
If Donald Trump attempts to get his election subversion case tossed he could compel Special Counsel Jack Smith to lean out his indictment and bring a trial ahead of the general election.
NYU law professor Ryan Goodman said as much during an appearance on CNN.
He noted that if Trump tries to tap into Friday's Supreme Court decision, where the justices voted in favor of sparing some Jan. 6 defendants of obstruction charges — it could blow up in his face.
"I think that Donald Trump needs to worry," Goodman said. "If he were to make the argument Jack Smith should drop two charges – it could end up hurting him and backfiring; hurting Donald Trump."
"Because after Monday, when the Supreme Court rules on immunity, big question: can Jack Smith say, okay, I'm going to slim this case down. We're going to curtail charges and now we do have time to proceed to a jury trial before the election?'"
The justices ruled 6-3 that the 2002 charge of obstructing an official proceeding that had been instituted as a fail-safe to the white collar corruption involving the Enron Corp. must include solid evidence that defendants tried to tamper with or destroy documents.
The decision will only affect a small swath of people who were charged or even convicted of laying siege to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 in Congress' effort to foil the certification of votes.
There are an estimated 250 cases currently pending, about 50 convicted on obstruction alone, and 27 currently serving time, according to CNN.
Goodman noted this in a tweet: "A quarter of [Jan. 6 defendants] pleaded guilty but NOT to obstruction. They pleaded to other charges. Those charges and those sentences are utterly unaffected by Supreme Court’s ruling."
It's expected that the decision will be repurposed by Trump's legal team to take aim at the Justice Department allegations of overreaching when it came to bringing cases against the rioting defendants.
Goodman noted that the Supreme Court’s opinion didn't address the fake electors scheme that specifically deals with Trump.
