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Justice Department Protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and military deployments has launched a months-long effort to prosecute people accused of assaulting or obstructing federal officers. Attorney General palm bondi Vows that such criminals will face “serious consequences”.
In a review of several criminal prosecutions brought by federal prosecutors, The Associated Press found that the Justice Department has struggled to fulfill Bondi’s pledge.
An analysis of 166 federal criminal cases brought since May against people in the four Democratic-led cities at the center of the demonstrations found that verdicts involving aggressive accusations and statements portraying defendants as domestic terrorists often failed to hold up in court.
“It’s clear from this data that the government is being extremely aggressive and charging for things that normally wouldn’t be charged at all,” said Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor and director of Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy. “It appears they want to prevent people from protesting against the administration’s mass deportation plans.”
Here are some of the key findings from the AP’s analysis:
dozens of hooliganism ended
Of the 100 people initially charged with aggravated assault on federal agents, 55 had their charges reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed.
The AP found that prosecutors sometimes failed to win the grand jury indictment needed to prosecute a person for a felony. Video and testimony raised questions about some of the initial charges, resulting in prosecutors downgrading the crimes.
In dozens of cases, officers suffered minor or no injuries, reducing a key component of the aggravated assault charge, which requires a probability of serious bodily harm.
One of the cases was against Dana Briggs, a 70-year-old Air Force veteran who was charged with assault after a protest in Chicago in September. After video footage surfaced of Briggs being pinned to the ground by federal agents, prosecutors dropped the case they had already downgraded to a misdemeanor.
Another case dropped by prosecutors was against 28-year-old Lucy Shepherd, who was charged with aggravated assault after she struck the arm of a federal officer attempting to disperse a crowd outside Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. His lawyers argued that a video of his arrest showed that he pushed an officer aside “with very little force without intent to cause any kind of injury.”
A Justice Department spokesperson said it would continue to seek the most serious charges available against those alleged to have harmed federal agents.
DOJ spokeswoman Natalie Baldassarre said, “We will not tolerate any violence directed toward our brave law enforcement officers who are working tirelessly to keep Americans safe.”
Despite the rhetoric, Antifa is rarely mentioned in court
The administration has deployed — or sought to deploy — troops to four cities where the AP has investigated criminal cases: WashingtonDC, Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago. Trump and his administration have tried to justify the military deployment by portraying immigration protesters as “antifa,” which the president has sought to designate as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
Short for “anti-fascist”, antifa is an umbrella term for far-left leaning protesters who confront or oppose white supremacists, sometimes clashing with law enforcement.
The AP review found few references to “antifa” in court records in the cases reviewed. The review found no cases in which federal officials officially accused any protesters of being “domestic terrorists” or being part of an organized effort to attack federal agents.
Prosecutors have lost every case
Experts said they were surprised that the Justice Department took five of the misdemeanor cases to trial, given that such hearings are resource-intensive. They were even more shocked that the DOJ lost all those trials.
Ronald Chapman II, a defense attorney who practices extensively in federal court, said, “When the DOJ tries to attack someone, they should be attacking 99.9% of the time. And that’s not happening.”
The highest-profile loss involved Shawn Charles Dunn, a man from Washington, D.C., who threw a Subway-style sandwich at a Border Patrol agent, whom he insulted by calling him a “fascist.” Dunn was acquitted on November 6 after a two-day trial.
In Los Angeles, Katherine Carreño, 32, was acquitted of rape in connection with an August protest outside a federal building.
Prosecutors had alleged that he ignored an officer’s order to move out of the way of a government vehicle and “raised his hand and brought it down on the officer’s arm in a slapping/biting motion”.
Social media video shown to jurors cast doubt on that narrative, showing an officer advancing toward Carreno and pushing him back.
More than 50 cases are pending
Prosecutors have secured felony charges against 58 people, some of whom were initially charged with misdemeanors. They are accused of attacking federal officers in a variety of ways, including throwing rocks and projectiles, punching or kicking them, and shooting paintballs at them. No one has had to go for testing yet.
From the start of Trump’s second term through Nov. 24, the Department of Homeland Security says there have been 238 attacks on ICE personnel nationwide. The agency declined to provide its list or details on how it defines the attacks.
“Riots and other violent criminals have threatened our law enforcement officers, thrown rocks, bottles and fireworks at them, slashed the tires of their vehicles, rammed them, ambushed and even shot at them,” said Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security.
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Ding reported from Los Angeles, Fernando from Chicago, Rush from Portland, Oregon, and Foley from Iowa City, Iowa.
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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/.