Prosecutors under President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice have pursued cases against political opponents, often failing to reach convictions and sometimes failing to survive to trial. Several efforts were dismissed after rulings found improper appointment of a key U.S. attorney office head, including cases involving former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. After dismissals, prosecutors sought new indictments, but grand juries repeatedly refused to indict both figures. A later indictment against Comey tied to an Instagram post has been criticized by legal experts as weak on facts and law. Even cases reaching trial have ended in acquittals, and judges have criticized recurring prosecutorial errors, contributing to high dismissal rates in federal court.
"President Donald Trump has pushed a politicized agenda at his Department of Justice, leading to prosecutors pursuing weak cases that have created an erosion in faith with judges and grand juries, The New York Times reported Tuesday. During Trump's second term, his DOJ has repeatedly sought to prosecute the president's political foes, but has often come up short not just in getting convictions, but also in even being able to get a case to survive until trial."
"Notable examples include the cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both of which were dismissed after a judge ruled that Trump's appointee to head the Eastern District of Virginia office, his former attorney Lindsey Halligan, was improperly appointed. In both those cases, federal prosecutors then tried again, but grand juries repeatedly refused to indict either Comey or James."
"The DOJ has since brought a new indictment against Comey for his Instagram post showing seashells that spelled out 86 47, but legal experts across the political spectrum have panned the case as fundamentally weak on both the facts and law. Even the cases that manage to get to trial have frequently ended up with black eyes for the DOJ."
"Last year, federal magistrate judge Zia Faruqui lambasted the DOJ in a written opinion for the way rampant errors were becoming an unfortunate pattern for federal prosecutors, leading to more than one out of every five criminal cases brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. being dismissed; the dismissal rate for the pr"
#department-of-justice #prosecutorial-misconduct #political-prosecutions #grand-jury-decisions #federal-court-dismissals
Read at www.mediaite.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]