This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

WASHINGTON – The turn of a few key events may change the fate of the Jan. 6 political prisoners now staring down the dark tunnel of a decade or more in prison for seditious conspiracy.

While the re-election of Donald Trump in November would almost guarantee the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers a presidential pardon, a series of recent Supreme Court rulings may likewise end up cutting time off the lengthy prison sentences they were handed for what many consider no greater crime than "wrongthink."

On June 28, SCOTUS ruled the Justice Department’s use of 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2), in conjunction with the most serious criminal charges leveled against former President Donald Trump and an ever-growing number of Jan. 6 defendants, is unconstitutional.

The statute says an offender who "(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 this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both."

The trouble is, in all of American history the DoJ had never used this statute to prosecute demonstrators, even when protests descended into skirmishes, riots, arson, assault, death or worse. Prosecutors, in effect, invented previously non-existent crimes, as if they were the U.S. Congress.

The Supreme Court's ruling should put a precipitous halt to the government's over-prosecutorial adventurism of nonviolent offenders whose only crime amounts to misdemeanor trespassing, and consequently vacating the convictions of possibly more than a hundred J6ers.

But as criminal defense and civil rights attorney Norm Pattis drafts the appeal for the Proud Boys who were handed the lengthiest prison sentences of all the J6 protesters, he is preparing to face defiant federal prosecutors who remain hellbent on circumventing the Constitution and the Supreme Court so they can bury their political opposition when they return to the courtroom.

"It appears the Justice Department is just digging in, pretending nothing ever happened, and baiting the defendants to raise the 1512 Obstruction issues on appeal on the theory that the DOJ may be able to salvage those convictions," Pattis told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview.

Pattis represents J6 political prisoners Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl, Infowars founder Alex Jones and Infowars host Owen Shroyer, all of whom are high-profile targets at the center of the DOJ's war on what it labels "domestic terrorism."

"I am still trying to understand it – I don't think anybody understands it yet," Pattis told WND. "I'm expecting to raise the 1512 issue on appeal on behalf of Biggs and Rehl and I expect the government will contend that their conduct that day made it impossible to count votes, and therefore 1512 applies even under the Supreme Court's new ruling."

He added, "The Justice Department [has gone] haywire in the J6 case, especially the Proud Boys' case – the use of 1512, the use of the terrorism enhancement."

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly used the government's now-discredited claim of 1512 "obstruction" to add terror enhancements to the Proud Boys' convictions – for pushing over flimsy gated bike racks surrounding the Capitol building during the first breach, with a crowd of approximately 300 people.

However, examination of footage of the first breach event shows that neither Biggs, Rehl nor their co-defendants ever physically touched the gate.

"These guys were declared terrorists for destroying a $34,000 fence – pushing over the 40 or so bike racks. As far as any of their offenses that remotely serve as predicates for the terrorism enhancement, that's the only one that was so committed. Others who have been handed terror enhancements before Jan. 6 had hijacked airplanes and assassinated people," Pattis told WND.

Having participated in hundreds of criminal trials since 1993, Pattis contends the government's prosecution of the Proud Boys is "the most chilling case for criminalizing protected speech in United States history."

In all the thousands of hours of Jan. 6 footage that Congress withheld from the American public for years, neither Biggs, an Army veteran who earned two purple hearts in combat and later became an Infowars reporter, nor Marine Corps veteran Zachary Rehl are seen committing a violent crime.

Alongside their co-defendant Ethan Nordean, who likewise committed no violent crimes, they roamed around "The People's House" for approximately 15 minutes and exited the restricted premises.

The U.S. government designated Enrique Tarrio, the iconic Proud Boys national chairman who was not even present in Washington, D.C., during the Capitol riot, the mastermind of the "terror attack."

Last September, Judge Kelly sentenced Tarrio to 22 years in prison, the lengthiest sentence handed to any Jan. 6 defendant to date; Nordean to 18 years; Biggs to 17 years; Rehl to 15 years. Pezzola, who is now grappling with esophageal cancer while incarcerated, was not found guilty of seditious conspiracy but was sentenced to 10 years.

Kelly added terror enhancements to all of their sentences for anti-Biden sentiments they had expressed in interviews with news media. After they were sentenced, prosecutors appealed for even longer prison sentences – still seeking life in prison for Biggs and 30 years for Rehl, following their decision to stroll through the Capitol building for approximately 15 minutes.

The barbaric political persecution of his clients, contends Pattis, serves one main purpose for the enemies of America.

"There's a systematic effort to scare the hell out of people to make sure they stay home in 2024 and are afraid to ever attend a rally again. It's a terrifying precedent," he told WND. "There has never been, in my view, a set of prosecutions in the United States like the Jan. 6 cases. We had a riot that lasted for several hours on Jan. 6, 2021, and we're still making arrests three-and-a-half years later, and people are still going to jail over their participation in a riot.

"Why are we still criminalizing misdemeanors? Why are they still looking to lock people up? After the United States Civil War, in which 600,000 people lost their lives in a conflict, we've repatriated almost everybody within two or three years. This doesn't make any sense to me at all. When people talk about 'politicization of justice,' this is what they mean."

All others who have been convicted of sedition in American history committed crimes that resulted in mass casualties. The only casualties during the Capitol riot were those killed by the government.

Even more outrageous than the obstruction charge against Jan. 6 defendants, Pattis added, are the sedition convictions that amount to nothing more than criminalizing thought.

"I defy anyone to show me proof of a plan for insurrection on Jan. 6. In the Proud Boys trial, AUSA Connor Mulroe proceeded on the basis that an 'implicit conspiracy' to violently overthrow the United States government formed the moment the crowd overreacted," he said.

"In other words, that people standing around at the Capitol on Jan. 6 got the idea in mind, all at the same time, to engage in the use of force against the government.

"This prosecution never proved there was a plan, as proof of the state of mind of the co-conspirators. They used protected political speech as their sole evidence, speech which, if uttered in any other context, would be protected. They criminalized protected speech in a very thin and unusual conspiracy theory to prove criminal intent in a case where there really was no plan for a riot or for an insurrection. It sets a very dangerous precedent for what may happen at future political events across the country."

Not only are Pattis' clients at risk of losing their freedom and facing additional financial penalties for what are essentially "thought crimes" – saying things that offend deep-state gatekeepers – the task of defending "political hostages" amid unprecedented lawfare and creative prosecution has been "catastrophic" for the veteran attorney.

"You're walking into these new rules, this misuse of law by the government that is really historic, really unprecedented," he said. "The most chilling thing is the need to be careful about where you speak and what you say, and who you say it to."

The Jan. 6 trials, in which the government and judges are getting away with what many knowledgeable legal minds regard as pillaging the U.S Constitution, are taking place in the dark. That is, no recording devices are allowed in the courtroom. Transcripts cost roughly $500 for the defense, but are free for the government. The judges are intent on keeping the trials as secret as possible.

Pattis described more peculiarities that have transpired in the courtroom, demonstrating how the judges are acting essentially as arms of a radically weaponized Department of Justice.

"Judge Kelly is not a friend of the First Amendment," Pattis told WorldNetDaily. "The number of times that the public was thrown out of the courtroom was shocking to me. The public didn't hear the full story about confidential human sources and, as a court officer, I'm ordered not to tell it.

"There was an occasion where national security interest data was mistakenly leaked into the courtroom. The public was thrown out, and they'll never know about that. There was an issue with a juror and the public was thrown out. The Sixth Amendment guarantees a defendant a public and speedy trial. The court made a lot of factual findings that kept things from the public in violation of the Proud Boys' rights."

"The combination of my potential suspension over the Alex Jones' case and the Proud Boys case has made this probably the two worst years of my life. I'm still fighting my suspension in the appellate courts, and I remain optimistic.

"But the combination of being suspended for defending Alex Jones and going without compensation for six months while I defended the Proud Boys put me to the test, and that is, how much did I care about these issues? And the answer is, a lot."

As WND exclusively reported, the Veterans Department and U.S Treasury Department is demanding Rehl repay the military benefits he received following Capitol riot to the tune of $100,000 with interest. He and Biggs were revoked of their military pensions when they were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

The DOJ's misuse of law has also left Pattis in financial ruin.

"My involvement with the Jan. 6 cases has been catastrophic. I was given assurances that there would be crowdsourced legal resources in their work. It was a deep disappointment that the community walked away from them. A lot of people talked a lot of committed talk about 'being there for them.' In the end, maybe they are, but as far as the legal fees are concerned, we've been left with about a half-a-million-dollar hole."

"There's no place I would have rather been during those five-and-a-half months than in that courtroom. I'm proud of my participation in both cases. If I would do it all over again, I would have taken greater care to be paid on behalf of the Proud Boys. If there are folks out there that are inclined to help, we are appealing for their help."