United States v. Herbert A. Howard and Elmer Gary Ritter

GEE, Circuit Judge:

Herbert Howard and Gary Ritter were convicted of conspiring to obstruct the “due administration of justice” under 18 U.S.C. § 1503. Their specific offense was an attempt to sell transcripts of secret grand jury testimony to persons under investigation for suspected violations of federal banking laws. Aside from several minor contentions, which we will discuss later, defendants’ various arguments on appeal boil down to the same complaint: that the statute under which they were charged and convicted does not cover the sale of grand jury testimony, or at least does not do so…