District of Columbia

mahatmakanejeeves

(66,500 posts) Sun Aug 24, 2025, 07:13 PM Aug 24

In Washington Crackdown, Making a Federal Case Out of Low-Level Arrests

In Washington Crackdown, Making a Federal Case Out of Low-Level Arrests

A single afternoon in court illustrated the new ways in which laws are being enforced after President Trump’s takeover of the city’s police.

Law enforcement officials searching a car after a traffic stop in Washington last week. President Donald Trump has cast his crackdown on crime as a success, and suggested on Friday that it was a blueprint he would seek to apply to other cities, including Chicago. Eric Lee for The New York Times

By Devlin Barrett
Reporting from Washington
Aug. 24, 2025
Updated 3:42 p.m. ET

As President Trump posed triumphantly for photos with police officers, government agents and members of the National Guard in Southeast Washington last week, lawyers across town in federal court grappled with his new brand of justice.

The stream of defendants who shuffled through a federal courtroom on Thursday afternoon illustrated the new ways in which laws are being enforced in the nation’s capital after the president’s takeover of the city’s police. They were appearing before a magistrate judge on charges that would typically be handled at the local court level, if they were filed at all.

One man had been arrested over an open container of alcohol. Another had been charged with threatening the president after delivering a drunken outburst following his arrest on vandalism. And one defendant’s gun case so alarmed prosecutors that they intend to drop the case.

Mr. Trump has cast his crackdown on crime as a success, and suggested on Friday that it was a blueprint he would seek to apply to other cities, including Chicago. To defense lawyers and even some prosecutors, though, many of the cases that have landed in court have raised concerns that the takeover seems intended to artificially inflate its effect because government lawyers have been instructed to file the most serious federal charges, no matter how minor the incident.

{snip}

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs and Alan Feuer contributed reporting.

Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.

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Highlight:

In Washington Crackdown, Making a Federal Case Out of Low-Level Arrests (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Aug 24 OP

Trump's D.C. Crime Crackdown Sends Minor Cases Federal mahatmakanejeeves Aug 24 #1

Don't look sideways if walking down a street in DC or the National Guard-police will toss you in jail. riversedge Aug 24 #2

............The charges follow a directive by the U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, to prosecutors to charge the most seriou riversedge Aug 24 #3

mahatmakanejeeves

(66,500 posts)

1. Trump's D.C. Crime Crackdown Sends Minor Cases Federal

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Sun Aug 24, 2025, 07:34 PM

Aug 24

Trump’s D.C. Crime Crackdown Sends Minor Cases Federal

By Syndicated Content
Aug 24, 2025 | 5:02 PM

President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of policing in Washington has shifted routine offenses into federal court, where minor arrests are being prosecuted as serious crimes under U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s directive to pursue maximum charges, The New York Times reported.

The shift was visible Thursday in U.S. District Court, where defendants normally handled in local court faced federal judges and prosecutors. Cases included an open container arrest, a contested gun charge, and threats against the president — each reflecting the new mandate.

Mark Bigelow, 28, a part-time Amazon delivery driver, was arrested Tuesday after federal and local officers spotted an open container of alcohol in a van where he sat. According to court filings, Bigelow left the vehicle but was stopped by agents; a second alcoholic drink was later found. Prosecutors charged him with possession of an open container, a misdemeanor.

As he was placed in custody, Bigelow resisted, cursing agents and kicking two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. He was then charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers, a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison. His defense attorney, Elizabeth Mullin, argued the case would never have been brought without the president’s directive: “He was caught up in this federal occupation of D.C.”

{snip}

riversedge

(77,497 posts)

2. Don't look sideways if walking down a street in DC or the National Guard-police will toss you in jail.

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Sun Aug 24, 2025, 08:08 PM

Aug 24

riversedge

(77,497 posts)

3. ............The charges follow a directive by the U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, to prosecutors to charge the most seriou

Reply to mahatmakanejeeves (Original post)

Sun Aug 24, 2025, 08:11 PM

Aug 24

I do hope they catch Pirro walking down the street after she has had too much wine for lunch.

............The charges follow a directive by the U.S. attorney, Jeanine Pirro, to prosecutors to charge the most serious crimes possible in each case and to do so in federal court, where sentences tend to run much longer.

A federal public defender representing Mr. Bigelow, Elizabeth Mullin, told the U.S. magistrate judge, Moxila A. Upadhyaya, that he would never have been arrested, let alone charged with a federal felony, but for the president’s crackdown. “He was caught up in this federal occupation of D.C.,” she said. “This was a case created by federal law enforcement.”

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