By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would ask Congress to tighten U.S. crime laws as part of a crackdown on violent crime in the District of Columbia and other U.S. cities.
Trump said Congress should end reforms in Chicago, New York and some other cities that allow some accused criminals to get out of jail ahead of their trial dates without posting a cash bond.
“Every place in the country where you have no-cash bail is a disaster,” Trump said at a White House press conference where he announced that he was putting the U.S. capital’s police department under federal control and deploying 800 National Guard troops.
Trump said the Department of Justice would craft legislation to end the practice and called on his fellow Republicans to push the bill through the narrowly divided Senate and House of Representatives.
It was not clear how Trump intended to end no-cash bail policies, which are often determined by state law.
Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, also said Congress should allow more juveniles to be charged as adults. “I can’t arrest them. I can’t prosecute them. They go to family court and they get to do yoga, and arts and crafts. Enough. It changes today,” she said.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
State governments have reformed bail systems in recent years by relying on supervised pretrial release rather than the posting of cash bonds, which have been blamed for reinforcing racial and economic disparities and creating a two-tiered system of justice.
Conservatives say that leads to higher crime rates, though a study by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University found no evidence of that.
Trump’s comments appeared to catch Republicans in Congress off-guard.
House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated Trump’s crackdown in Washington in a social media post but did not mention new legislation.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office was not immediately available for comment.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer pledged to advance legislation to “protect Americans in their capital city” and hold a hearing with District of Columbia officials in September.
Lawmakers intend to advance a bill that would allow alleged offenders aged 18 and older in Washington to be tried as adults, a Republican committee spokesperson said. The bill would also prevent youth offenders from receiving sentences below the mandatory minimum for a given crime.
(Reporting by David Morgan in Washington; Additional reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Andy Sullivan and Matthew Lewis)
