Washington DC’s top federal prosecutor says that her office will pursue the toughest criminal charges for arrests made in the Trump administration’s purported crime crackdown, even as the office softens enforcement of a DC law that makes it illegal to possess rifles and shotguns in the city.
The policy changes, according to people briefed on the matter, come as US Attorney Jeanine Pirro seeks to bolster support for President Donald Trump’s declaration of a crime emergency, which has included a takeover of the municipal police department and surge of federal law enforcement and National Guard troops in parts of the city.
The change appears to have already had an impact in DC’s Superior Court, where most misdemeanor, street crime and domestic violence charges are prosecuted like in a local or state court, but by the federal prosecutors from Pirro’s office.
Multiple times this week, several dozen more arrestees were charged with crimes and appeared in the court initially. In the past, a significant number of daily arrests wouldn’t have resulted in charges, a practice referred to as “no-papering,” often because the evidence is too unreliable or weak to use against defendants.
Pirro’s new policy pushes prosecutors to allow the cases to play out in court, even ones that might typically have been abandoned.
The DC US Attorney’s office has wrestled for years with the issue of how to charge some of the lower-level arrests made by the city’s Metropolitan Police Department. The office is also unique in that it oversees bringing charges in federal and local charges because the jurisdiction is not a state.
“In line with President Trump’s directive to make D.C. safe, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has made it clear that the old way of doing things is unacceptable,” her spokesman Tim Lauer said in a statement. “She directed her staff to charge the highest crime that is supported by the law and the evidence.”
The administration has touted the number of arrests that federal authorities have made since the takeover began. Federal agents have made over 630 arrests since they arrived, a White House official said Thursday. The DOJ has not said whether that number exceeds the average amount of arrests normally made by city police in the same amount of time.
Change in handling some gun crimes
Also this week, Pirro has told prosecutors the office will not bring felony charges against people for possessing rifles or shotguns in the city, abandoning enforcement of a city law that makes it illegal to carry those firearms.
The new policy against pursing charges does not cover anyone accused of using the weapons in a violent crime or who are not authorized to have a gun, Pirro said in a statement, and follows guidance from both the Supreme Court and the Justice Department’s solicitor general.
“We will continue to seize all illegal and unlicensed firearms, and to vigorously prosecute all crimes connected with them,” Pirro said in a statement to CNN.
“If anyone is carrying a weapon illegally, they will absolutely be charged,” she said.
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