Ochs, who was convicted under the controversial 1512(c) statute, had his conviction vacated after the Supreme Court overturned the obstruction charge used to jail hundreds of January 6 defendants.
Ochs’s release marks a significant development in the ongoing legal battles faced by January 6 defendants, many of whom were charged under the same statute.
“The only charge I had was 1512(c), a charge the Supreme Court threw out on June 28 as not a crime anymore—unless someone tampered with paper ballots, which no one did,” he continued.
He also highlighted the significance of his case for other January 6th defendants, many of whom remain behind bars under similar charges.
Ochs, who was initially threatened with up to 20 years in prison for his actions on January 6th, argued that he was targeted not for any violent act but “for filming the same events in the same place as mainstream media reporters – who were not arrested.”
Despite this, he became the subject of relentless smears, with left-wing activists and media outlets. False accusations labeled him a member of the Ku Klux Klan and an abuser of his black wife and mixed-race children—vile lies that were never substantiated but served as tools to further discredit him publicly.
After the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling invalidated his charge, Ochs’s conviction was vacated, and he now walks free with no criminal record.
“Doing time after the Supreme Court says you are innocent feels about 3 times longer, I’ll say that much. Now, I am innocent. Conviction vacated, not a sentence commutation or some lesser relief. I have no criminal record,” he added.