The Trump administration loves hurting people, and what better way than jamming them up on frivolous charges? But while charging defendants based on nothing is easy, turning those vibes into convictions is decidedly less so, as the administration is quickly finding out.
U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro has set what must be a record for the most no-bills in such a short time on the job, with grand juries repeatedly refusing to indict—something they’re typically very willing to do. It turns out that her office isn’t having such a hot time with regular juries, either.
On Thursday, a D.C. jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding Sydney Lori Reid not guilty of assaulting an FBI agent—after Pirro’s office wasted a comically long time trying to unjustly convict her.
Reid was filming Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside a D.C. jail when an ICE agent detained her, pushing her against a wall. According to the prosecution, as Reid struggled, a valiant FBI agent named Eugenia Bates came to help and Reid “forcefully pushed” Bates’ hand against the wall, causing lacerations.
Pirro’s office charged Reid with enhanced felony assault on a federal officer and then spent weeks bringing her case in front of multiple grand juries, all of which declined to indict, so Pirro was forced to drop the charges to a misdemeanor. The government then proceeded to conduct a three-day trial filled with a cavalcade of their nonsense and errors.
Two surveillance videos of the incident were not disclosed to Reid until the night before trial. Bates was the sole witness called by the prosecution, which also didn’t turn over one of Bates’ messages, which defense counsel discovered while cross-examining Bates.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan told the prosecutor, “These are games.” The jury was less than impressed, and that was the end of that.
Things are not going any better near Chicago. Earlier this month, a grand jury refused to indict two protesters for allegedly assaulting federal officers outside the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrest a protester at the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 19.
However, the government tried to use those incidents as part of its justification for sending troops to Chicago. The judge in that deployment case, April Perry, pointed out that while government declarations referenced the arrests and alleged assaults, they somehow neglected to mention the refusals to indict: “In addition to demonstrating a potential lack of candor by these affiants, it also calls into question their ability to accurately assess the facts.”
You don’t say.
Remember the Border Patrol agent in Chicago who said he had to shoot Marimar Martinez five times after she boxed him in and rammed his car? The fact that the agent was able to then drive his ostensibly rammed vehicle over a thousand miles back to Maine right away undercuts the notion that Martinez aggressively struck him. And the fact that the government gave the agent the okay to do so before letting Martinez and her attorney examine the SUV flies in the face of criminal procedure rules and legal ethics.
If the government is going to charge Martinez with a felony for allegedly ramming an SUV, the shape the vehicle was in post-ramming is obviously relevant. The assistant U.S. attorney told the court that photos were taken after the incident, which is not a sufficient excuse, and the judge ordered it brought back to Chicago on a flatbed trailer immediately.
It isn’t just ICE-adjacent cases where the administration is finding out you can’t just charge someone and call it a day.
In the Eastern District of Virginia, interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is flailing in her prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey. Her laughable attempt to restrict Comey’s access to discovery materials did not land well with the court, nor did her attempts to delay turning over evidence.
The administration positions itself as the perpetual victim, bravely standing up to supposed antifa supersoldiers and the deep state. That plays somewhat well for them online and during press conferences, where they can control the narrative. However, the very nature of criminal cases undermines that control because there is no way around having to provide evidence to prove the defendant’s guilt.
The more absurd and over-the-top the charges the government brings, the more obvious the gap between fiction and reality.
Most of the administration’s court victories have come thanks to the Supreme Court’s conservatives being willing to accept whatever fiction President Donald Trump invents. But outside of that rarefied air, the administration just can’t make all those lies stick.
