I’ll
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 barely competent
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
“no
one’s
perfect”
shrug.
This DOJ fails
at every
single
level.
It
can’t secure
indictments.
It
can’t
convince
grand
juries
that
vindictive
prosecutions
are legitimate prosecutions.
And
its
prosecutors
are
constantly
undermined
by
(1)
prejudicial,
fact-free
social
media
posts
and
public
statements
by
administration
officials,
(2)
the illegal
actions of
federal
officers,
(3)
their
own
ineptitude,
(4)
the
lies told
by
federal
officers,
and
(5)
any
or
all
of
the
above.
High-level
prosecutors
keep
getting
sidelined
because
they’ve
been illegally
appointed.
Other
prosecutors
have
refused
to
engage
with
the
administration’s
vindictive
plans,
resulting
in
most
of
them
retiring
or
being
fired.
Consequently,
there’s
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.
It
took
less
than
a
year
for
the
Trump
DOJ
to
almost
completely
destroy
the
“presumption
of
regularity”
—
the
legal
concept
that
the
government
is
acting
in
good
faith,
even
if
its
legal
arguments
aren’t
the
best.
It
took
less
than
a
year
for
the
Trump
DOJ
to turn
grand
juries into
coin
flips.
I
mean, this
is
how
it
went for
years prior
to
Trump
2.0:
In
2016,
the
most
recent
year
for
which the
Justice
Department
has
published
data,
federal
prosecutors
concluded
more
than
155,000
prosecutions
and
declined
over
25,000
cases
presented
by
investigators. In
only
six
instances
was
a
grand
jury’s
refusal
to
indict
listed
as
the
reason
for
dropping
the
matter.
Six
times
in
a
one
year
over
25,000
declined
cases.
Trump’s
loyalist
US
Attorney
pick,
Lindsey
Halligan,
put
her
insurance
law
background
to
work
and…
managed
to
do
this
twice
during
a single (attempted)
prosecution.
When
prosecutors
aren’t
shooting
themselves
in
the
foot
(or
being
shot
in
the
foot
by
their
employer),
they’re
losing
cases
because
the
people
they
expect
to
back
up
their
cases
—
the
federal
officers
claiming
to
have
been
assaulted,
etc.
—
can’t
even
back
up
their
own
narratives
when
testifying
in
court.
This
was
already
a
problem
by
late
summer
of
last
year.
The
Guardian
reports that
things
appear
to
have
gotten
even
worse.
The
most
recent
significant
fumble
came
from
Minneapolis
prosecutors,
who
last
week dismissed
felony
assault
charges they
had
filed
against
two
Venezuelan
men accused of
“violently
beating”
an
Immigration
and
Customs
Enforcement
(ICE)
officer
“with
weapons”
on
14
January.
According
to
the
early
government
narrative,
federal
officers
were
assaulted
by
“violent
criminal
illegal
aliens”
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
“snow
shovel
and
broom
handle.”
That
case
is
now
dead
because…
well,
the
testifying
officers
lied.
[O]n
12
February,
prosecutors
filed
a
motion
to
dismiss
both
men’s
cases,
saying:
“Newly
discovered
evidence
in
this
matter
is
materially
inconsistent
with
the
allegations
in
the
complaint
affidavit.”
[…]
ICE
director
Todd
Lyons
said
ICE
and
the
DoJ
had opened
an
investigation into
the
case
after
videos
revealed
“sworn
testimony
provided
by
two
separate
officers
appears
to
have
made
untruthful
statements”,
marking
a
rare
acknowledgement
of
possible
wrongdoing
by
DHS
officials.
It’s
extremely
rare
for
the
government
to
dismiss
its own prosecution
with
prejudice,
meaning
it
can’t ever seek
to
refile
these
criminal
charges
against
the
alleged
perpetrators.
And
I
don’t
know
if
Todd
Lyons
just
misspoke
or
if
he
actually
tried
to
use
the
exonerative
tense
while
simultaneously
stating
these
officers
lied.
“Sworn
testimony…
appears
to
have
made
untruthful
statements”
sounds
like
the
courtroom
version
of
a
government
official
discussing
a
shooting
by
an
officer
with
the
phrase
“the
officer’s
weapon
discharged,”
suggesting
no
one
actually
pulled
the
trigger.
Whatever
the
case,
there’s
definitely
a
trend
here.
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 recent
investigation by
Fox
9,
a
Minneapolis-based
station,
showed.
As
of
the
end
of
January,
there
have
been
no
convictions.
In
LA,
the
federal
public
defenders
have
won
all
six
cases
filed
against
ICE
protesters
that
have
gone
to
trial
since
June,
the LA
Times
recently
reported.
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.
Juries
have
also
issued
not
guilty
verdicts
for
people
accused
of
assaulting
ICE
or
similar
charges
in Louisville,
Kentucky, Seattle and Washington
DC.
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’t
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.
It
doesn’t
mean
the
DOJ
is
harmless,
however.
It’s
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.
DOJ’s
Losing
Streak
Continues
Because
Federal
Officers
Just
Can’t
Stop
Lying
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