Obstruction Of Justice

The crime of obstruction of justice includes crimes committed by judges, prosecutors, and attorneys’ general and elected officials in general. It is misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance in the conduct of the office. Most commonly a non-governmental official mainly because of prosecutorial discretion prosecutes it as a crime for false swearing. Prosecutors and attorneys general however commit obstruction of justice when they fail to prosecute judges and other government officials for malfeasance, misfeasance, or nonfeasance in office. Some of the Notable Examples of Obstruction of Justice are:

• Martha Stewart was convicted of obstruction of justice, as well as other charges, for falsifying her trading records after teach her friend Sam Waksal, the CEO of Imclone, the company whose stock she sold, was being investigated for insider trading. It appears that Ms. Stewart's own trading activities did not meet the strict definition of insider trading, and the falsification of documents was intended merely to create an explanation for what was a suspicious trade. However, her actions made it more difficult to prove that Waksal had also sold his stock in anticipation of negative news of the lack of FDA approval for Imclone's product.
• Former Vice-Presidential adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice for his role in the investigation of a leak to reporters that named a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame. President George W. Bush commuted his prison sentence in July of 2007, just before Libby was about to serve a two and a half year prison sentence.
• President Richard Nixon was being investigated for obstruction of justice for his alleged role in the cover-up of the break-in at the Watergate hotel during his 1972 re-election campaign. Although it is widely believed that Nixon had no foreknowledge of his re-election committee's "dirty tricks" campaign against Democratic presidential candidates that led to the break-in, it appears he was aware of it after the fact and planned to pay money to keep the participants quiet.
• Conrad Black was convicted of obstruction of justice in July, 2007 for removing 13 boxes containing financial records from his office in Toronto after it had been sealed by a court order, returning the boxes a few days later. Black claimed he had taken the boxes because they contained personal items.