Justices flash back to 1776 to resolve Twitter-era obstruction probe 

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court seemed concerned Monday that the federal government’s obstruction charge against a former Twitter employee rested on a theory the founders did away with in 1776.

“You’re trying to defend this particular conviction, and I understand that,” Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush appointee, told the government. “But maybe, when you’re told that what you’re doing is a violation of the Declaration of Independence you might think about what seems to me the more important point.”

Despite only interacting with FBI agents at his home in Seattle, Washington, Ahmad Abouammo was charged with falsifying documents in San Francisco, California. The federal government claimed the venue was appropriate because Abouammo’s obstructive conduct — an email sent to agents — was directed at the FBI investigation headquartered in San Francisco.

But Chief Justice John Roberts, also a George W. Bush appointee, compared the government’s theory to sending American colonists to be tried in England.

“Under your interpretation, that would still be allowed,” Roberts told the government. “The Boston Tea Party takes place entirely in Boston, but it causes effects back in England, so why can’t you say it’s alright to take them back to England?”

The government objected to this characterization, but Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Donald Trump appointee, also saw the hypothetical as an appropriate analogy.

“We have a crime whose intended effect is the king in England,” Gorsuch said. “That’s certainly how the framers thought of it themselves when they were in the Revolution — they were aiming at parliament and the king…The crown did want to try them in England, and that was considered an infamy that led to the Sixth Amendment.”

Rebutting the justices’ questions, the government said the colonists were upset about actions taken in and with direct effect in the states in England, where the only connection was the vague dignitary offense of treason.

“I don’t think that’s how King George took it,” Roberts responded.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Joe Biden appointee, said Roberts and Gorsuch’s questions hit at the concern that the crown was gaining an advantage by trying them in England rather than in the colonies.

“The concern, I think, with your theory is that because the government controls the location of the investigation, you would end up with the same kind of troubling dynamic,” Jackson said.

Abouammo served as Twitter’s media partnerships manager for the Middle East and North Africa, giving him access to confidential information. The government says he leaked information about two dissident Saudi users to a Saudi official for a watch and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2015, the FBI office in San Francisco began investigating Twitter employees’ access to such information. Two agents traveled from their home office to interview Abouammo at his Seattle home as part of the probe.

Abouammo had left Twitter and started his own company by the time the investigation began, but he agreed to speak with the agents. While they were at his home, Abouammo went upstairs, created a fake invoice from his consulting company and emailed it to the agents.

The government charged Abouammo with a slew of offenses including acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. But his falsification of a record to obstruct a federal investigation was the sole issue before the justices on Monday.

Abouammo told the court he should have been charged in Seattle because the law he was charged under only required the creation of a falsified record.

“He was guilty and his offense was complete the moment he finished creating the false invoice with the requisite intent,” Tobias Loss-Eaton, an attorney with Sidley Austin representing Abouammo said. “Whether he sent it to investigators, whether it affected them in some way, or whether an investigation even existed at all, none of that is relevant to liability under the statute.”

The court appeared likely to give Abouammo a narrow win under the statutory text. Several justices were concerned that anything broader could leave serious offenses like impersonating a government official without recourse.

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