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4 with the process of justice and law,” including “by influencing, threatening, harming, or impeding a witness, potential witness, juror, or judicial or legal officer or by furnishing false information in or otherwise impeding an investigation or legal process.” Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law 337 (1996). The offense “captures every willful act of corruption, intimidation, or force that tends somehow to impair the machinery of the civil or criminal law.” B. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 611 (2d ed. 1995); see also Black’s Law Dictionary 1077 (6th ed. 1990) (“obstructing the administration of justice in any way”); cf. Esquivel-Quintana, 581 U. S., at 391–392 (relying on same dictionaries to interpret a different offense in §1101(a)(43)).

Notably missing from those dictionary definitions is a requirement that an investigation or proceeding be pending. The dictionaries demonstrate that obstruction of justice includes offenses where an investigation or proceeding is pending, but is not limited to offenses where an investigation or proceeding is pending.

In accord with the dictionary definitions, Title 18 of the U. S. Code has long proscribed various obstruction offenses that do not require a pending investigation or proceeding. Entitled “Obstruction of Justice,” Chapter 73 of Title 18 houses many such offenses. For example, the federal witness tampering statute covers various offenses, such as killing or threatening a witness with an intent to prevent the person from testifying at an official proceeding. See 18 U. S. C. §§§ [sic]1512(a)(1)(A), (b)(1). That statute provides that “an official proceeding need not be pending or about to be instituted at the time of the offense.” §1512(f)(1). Likewise, §1519 forbids assorted means of destroying, altering, or falsifying records with an intent to obstruct certain investigations or proceedings. That provision covers acts intended to impede a federal investigation or proceeding, “including one not even on the verge of commencement.”