I\u2019ll take my joy where I can. And this iteration of the Trump DOJ continues to provide bright bursts of schadenfreude-tinted sunshine.<\/p>\n
Any competent DOJ can close cases. Any\u00a0barely<\/em>\u00a0competent prosecutor can push a case past a grand jury. Any sufficiently slippery solicitor (mixing in some British for the sheer alliteration of it all) can convince a judge that the lies told by officers were merely good faith blunders not worthy of anything more than a judicial \u201cno one\u2019s perfect\u201d shrug.<\/p>\n This<\/em>\u00a0DOJ\u00a0fails at\u00a0every single level<\/em><\/a>. It can\u2019t\u00a0secure indictments<\/a>. It can\u2019t convince grand juries that vindictive prosecutions are\u00a0legitimate<\/em>\u00a0prosecutions. And its prosecutors are constantly undermined by (1) prejudicial, fact-free social media posts and public statements by administration officials, (2) the\u00a0illegal actions<\/a>\u00a0of federal officers, (3) their own ineptitude, (4) the lies\u00a0told by federal officers<\/a>, and (5) any or all of the above.<\/p>\n High-level prosecutors keep getting sidelined because they\u2019ve been\u00a0illegally appointed<\/a>. Other prosecutors have refused to engage with the administration\u2019s vindictive plans, resulting in most of them retiring or being fired. Consequently, there\u2019s a shortage of qualified, experienced prosecutors. The void is being constantly refilled by some of the emptiest people ever to leverage MAGA loyalty into federal employment.<\/p>\n It took less than a year for the Trump DOJ to almost completely destroy the \u201cpresumption of regularity<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the legal concept that the government is acting in good faith, even if its legal arguments aren\u2019t the best. It took less than a year for the Trump DOJ to\u00a0turn grand juries<\/a>\u00a0into coin flips.<\/p>\n I mean,\u00a0this is how it went\u00a0for years<\/em><\/a>\u00a0prior to Trump 2.0:<\/p>\n In 2016, the most recent year for which\u00a0the Justice Department has published data<\/a>, federal prosecutors concluded more than 155,000 prosecutions and declined over 25,000 cases presented by investigators.\u00a0In only six instances was a grand jury\u2019s refusal to indict listed as the reason for dropping the matter<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Six times in a one year over 25,000 declined cases. Trump\u2019s loyalist US Attorney pick, Lindsey Halligan, put her insurance law background to work and\u2026 managed to do this twice during a\u00a0single<\/em>\u00a0(attempted) prosecution.<\/p>\n When prosecutors aren\u2019t shooting themselves in the foot (or being shot in the foot by their employer), they\u2019re losing cases because the people they expect to back up their cases \u2014 the federal officers claiming to have been assaulted, etc. \u2014 can\u2019t even back up their own narratives when testifying in court.<\/p>\n This was already a problem by late summer of last year. The Guardian reports\u00a0that things appear to have gotten even worse<\/a>.<\/p>\n The most recent significant fumble came from Minneapolis prosecutors, who last week\u00a0dismissed felony assault charges<\/a>\u00a0they had filed against two Venezuelan men\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cviolently beating\u201d an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer \u201cwith weapons\u201d on 14 January.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n According to the early government narrative, federal officers were assaulted by \u201cviolent criminal illegal aliens\u201d during a stop of an undocumented Venezuelan. The officers claimed two other men came out of a nearby apartment and attacked an officer with a \u201csnow shovel and broom handle.\u201d That case is now dead because\u2026 well, the testifying officers lied.<\/p>\n [O]n 12 February, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss both men\u2019s cases, saying: \u201cNewly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint affidavit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n [\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n ICE director Todd Lyons said ICE and the DoJ had\u00a0opened an investigation<\/a>\u00a0into the case after videos revealed \u201csworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements\u201d, marking a rare acknowledgement of possible wrongdoing by DHS officials.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s extremely rare for the government to dismiss its\u00a0own<\/em>\u00a0prosecution with prejudice, meaning it can\u2019t\u00a0ever<\/em>\u00a0seek to refile these criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators. And I don\u2019t know if Todd Lyons just misspoke or if he actually tried to use the exonerative tense while simultaneously stating these officers lied. \u201cSworn testimony\u2026 appears to have made untruthful statements\u201d sounds like the courtroom version of a government official discussing a shooting by an officer with the phrase \u201cthe officer\u2019s weapon discharged,\u201d suggesting no one actually pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n Whatever the case, there\u2019s definitely a trend here.<\/p>\n In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending, a\u00a0recent investigation<\/a>\u00a0by Fox 9, a Minneapolis-based station, showed. As of the end of January, there have been no convictions.<\/em><\/p>\n In LA, the federal public defenders have won all six cases filed against ICE protesters that have gone to trial since June, the\u00a0LA Times recently reported<\/a>. Fewer than 1% of federal criminal defendants were acquitted across the US in fiscal year 2024, with US prosecutors traditionally having a roughly 90% conviction rate, the paper noted.<\/em><\/p>\n Juries have also issued not guilty verdicts for people accused of assaulting ICE or similar charges in\u00a0Louisville, Kentucky<\/a>,\u00a0Seattle<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Washington DC<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I assume the DOJ bloodshed will continue. Trump hates losing and he hates people who lose in his name even more. But replacing talent with loyalists isn\u2019t going to end this losing streak. If nothing else, this iteration of the DOJ has the chance to go down in history as one of the worst ever assembled, even if we consider nothing else but its win-loss record.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t mean the DOJ is harmless, however. It\u2019s still more than willing to engage in vindictive prosecutions, ignore court orders, and take bite after bite of the apple (so to speak) until it finally manages to at least pierce the skin. And that means a lot of people are going to have their lives upended, even if only temporarily, just to please a tyrant who thinks anything or anyone presenting even the most minimal of opposition should be subjected to punishment.<\/p>\n DOJ\u2019s Losing Streak Continues Because Federal Officers Just Can\u2019t Stop Lying<\/a><\/p>\n More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt<\/strong>:<\/p>\n With Netflix Retreat, Trump Ally Larry Ellison Will Soon Own Warner Brothers, HBO, CNN, CBS, Paramount, Discovery, And Part Of TikTok<\/a> The post DOJ\u2019s Losing Streak Continues Because Federal Officers Just Can\u2019t Stop Lying<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll take my joy where I can. And this iteration of the Trump DOJ continues to provide bright bursts of schadenfreude-tinted sunshine.<\/p>\n Any competent DOJ can close cases. Any\u00a0barely<\/em>\u00a0competent prosecutor can push a case past a grand jury. Any sufficiently slippery solicitor (mixing in some British for the sheer alliteration of it all) can convince a judge that the lies told by officers were merely good faith blunders not worthy of anything more than a judicial \u201cno one\u2019s perfect\u201d shrug.<\/p>\n This<\/em>\u00a0DOJ\u00a0fails at\u00a0every single level<\/em><\/a>. It can\u2019t\u00a0secure indictments<\/a>. It can\u2019t convince grand juries that vindictive prosecutions are\u00a0legitimate<\/em>\u00a0prosecutions. And its prosecutors are constantly undermined by (1) prejudicial, fact-free social media posts and public statements by administration officials, (2) the\u00a0illegal actions<\/a>\u00a0of federal officers, (3) their own ineptitude, (4) the lies\u00a0told by federal officers<\/a>, and (5) any or all of the above.<\/p>\n High-level prosecutors keep getting sidelined because they\u2019ve been\u00a0illegally appointed<\/a>. Other prosecutors have refused to engage with the administration\u2019s vindictive plans, resulting in most of them retiring or being fired. Consequently, there\u2019s a shortage of qualified, experienced prosecutors. The void is being constantly refilled by some of the emptiest people ever to leverage MAGA loyalty into federal employment.<\/p>\n It took less than a year for the Trump DOJ to almost completely destroy the \u201cpresumption of regularity<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the legal concept that the government is acting in good faith, even if its legal arguments aren\u2019t the best. It took less than a year for the Trump DOJ to\u00a0turn grand juries<\/a>\u00a0into coin flips.<\/p>\n I mean,\u00a0this is how it went\u00a0for years<\/em><\/a>\u00a0prior to Trump 2.0:<\/p>\n In 2016, the most recent year for which\u00a0the Justice Department has published data<\/a>, federal prosecutors concluded more than 155,000 prosecutions and declined over 25,000 cases presented by investigators.\u00a0In only six instances was a grand jury\u2019s refusal to indict listed as the reason for dropping the matter<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Six times in a one year over 25,000 declined cases. Trump\u2019s loyalist US Attorney pick, Lindsey Halligan, put her insurance law background to work and\u2026 managed to do this twice during a\u00a0single<\/em>\u00a0(attempted) prosecution.<\/p>\n When prosecutors aren\u2019t shooting themselves in the foot (or being shot in the foot by their employer), they\u2019re losing cases because the people they expect to back up their cases \u2014 the federal officers claiming to have been assaulted, etc. \u2014 can\u2019t even back up their own narratives when testifying in court.<\/p>\n This was already a problem by late summer of last year. The Guardian reports\u00a0that things appear to have gotten even worse<\/a>.<\/p>\n The most recent significant fumble came from Minneapolis prosecutors, who last week\u00a0dismissed felony assault charges<\/a>\u00a0they had filed against two Venezuelan men\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0of \u201cviolently beating\u201d an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer \u201cwith weapons\u201d on 14 January.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n According to the early government narrative, federal officers were assaulted by \u201cviolent criminal illegal aliens\u201d during a stop of an undocumented Venezuelan. The officers claimed two other men came out of a nearby apartment and attacked an officer with a \u201csnow shovel and broom handle.\u201d That case is now dead because\u2026 well, the testifying officers lied.<\/p>\n [O]n 12 February, prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss both men\u2019s cases, saying: \u201cNewly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint affidavit.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n [\u2026]<\/em><\/p>\n ICE director Todd Lyons said ICE and the DoJ had\u00a0opened an investigation<\/a>\u00a0into the case after videos revealed \u201csworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements\u201d, marking a rare acknowledgement of possible wrongdoing by DHS officials.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s extremely rare for the government to dismiss its\u00a0own<\/em>\u00a0prosecution with prejudice, meaning it can\u2019t\u00a0ever<\/em>\u00a0seek to refile these criminal charges against the alleged perpetrators. And I don\u2019t know if Todd Lyons just misspoke or if he actually tried to use the exonerative tense while simultaneously stating these officers lied. \u201cSworn testimony\u2026 appears to have made untruthful statements\u201d sounds like the courtroom version of a government official discussing a shooting by an officer with the phrase \u201cthe officer\u2019s weapon discharged,\u201d suggesting no one actually pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n Whatever the case, there\u2019s definitely a trend here.<\/p>\n In Chicago, of 92 people arrested for assaulting or impeding officers last fall, 74 cases have resulted in no charges; in 13 cases, charges were filed and dismissed; and five charged cases were still pending, a\u00a0recent investigation<\/a>\u00a0by Fox 9, a Minneapolis-based station, showed. As of the end of January, there have been no convictions.<\/em><\/p>\n In LA, the federal public defenders have won all six cases filed against ICE protesters that have gone to trial since June, the\u00a0LA Times recently reported<\/a>. Fewer than 1% of federal criminal defendants were acquitted across the US in fiscal year 2024, with US prosecutors traditionally having a roughly 90% conviction rate, the paper noted.<\/em><\/p>\n Juries have also issued not guilty verdicts for people accused of assaulting ICE or similar charges in\u00a0Louisville, Kentucky<\/a>,\u00a0Seattle<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Washington DC<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I assume the DOJ bloodshed will continue. Trump hates losing and he hates people who lose in his name even more. But replacing talent with loyalists isn\u2019t going to end this losing streak. If nothing else, this iteration of the DOJ has the chance to go down in history as one of the worst ever assembled, even if we consider nothing else but its win-loss record.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t mean the DOJ is harmless, however. It\u2019s still more than willing to engage in vindictive prosecutions, ignore court orders, and take bite after bite of the apple (so to speak) until it finally manages to at least pierce the skin. And that means a lot of people are going to have their lives upended, even if only temporarily, just to please a tyrant who thinks anything or anyone presenting even the most minimal of opposition should be subjected to punishment.<\/p>\n DOJ\u2019s Losing Streak Continues Because Federal Officers Just Can\u2019t Stop Lying<\/a><\/p>\n More Law-Related Stories From Techdirt<\/strong>:<\/p>\n With Netflix Retreat, Trump Ally Larry Ellison Will Soon Own Warner Brothers, HBO, CNN, CBS, Paramount, Discovery, And Part Of TikTok<\/a> The post DOJ\u2019s Losing Streak Continues Because Federal Officers Just Can\u2019t Stop Lying<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ll take my joy where I can. And this iteration of the Trump DOJ continues to provide bright bursts of schadenfreude-tinted sunshine. Any competent DOJ can close cases. Any\u00a0barely\u00a0competent prosecutor can push a case past a grand jury. Any sufficiently slippery solicitor (mixing in some British for the sheer alliteration of it all) can convince […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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The DOJ \u2018Forgot\u2019 To Mention The Law Restricting Searches Of Journalists. The Judge Is Not Happy<\/a>
Trump FCC Demands \u2018Pro-America\u2019 Media Programming All Summer Long<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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The DOJ \u2018Forgot\u2019 To Mention The Law Restricting Searches Of Journalists. The Judge Is Not Happy<\/a>
Trump FCC Demands \u2018Pro-America\u2019 Media Programming All Summer Long<\/a><\/p>\n