“Judge Jeanine” Pirro’s attempt to carry out President Donald Trump’s tough-on-crime campaign in the nation’s capital has floundered again with another failed indictment.
A federal grand jury refused to indict a D.C. lawyer accused of assaulting and threatening members of the National Guard, WUSA9 reported Tuesday.
It marks at least the eighth time in the last month that a grand jury has refused to bring felony charges sought by Pirro, the Fox News host-turned-U.S. Attorney for D.C., according to WUSA9’s report.
Paul Anthony Bryant, a West Point graduate and Army veteran, was arrested on Aug. 24 after he allegedly approached members of the National Guard, saying, “these are our streets” and “I’ll kill you,” as well as making statements to the effect that he was “strapped,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by ABA Journal. He also allegedly “threw” his shoulder into a Guardsman.
Pirro’s office charged Bryant with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers; impeding a federal official by a threat; and threatening to kidnap or injure a person.
Bryant told a judge the charges were “baseless” and “hearsay,” according to WUSA9. His attorney noted that there is no video of the alleged interaction, as members of the National Guard patrolling D.C. are not required to wear body cameras.
Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui released Bryant from jail on Aug. 28, saying, “This is perhaps one of the weakest requests for detention I have seen and something that, prior to two weeks ago, would have been unthinkable in this courthouse,” 13News Now reported.
Prosecutors had argued that Bryant was a danger to the community in part because he was carrying a gun at the time of his arrest.
But Bryant legally owned the weapon and had a concealed carry permit. In addition, Faruqui noted that prosecutors had not sought to detain hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants with more serious allegations, according to 13News Now.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Pirro’s office for comment.
The grand jury’s refusal to indict Bryant is just one of many stumbles for Pirro since Trump took control of the D.C. police force and deployed the National Guard in the name of a crime crackdown, even though violent crime in the city hit a 30-year low last year.
In one notable case, federal prosecutors were unable to secure a felony indictment against Sean Dunn, who who went viral last month after hurling a sandwich at an officer.
Days later, a grand jury refused to indict Nathalie Jones, who had allegedly branded Trump as a “Nazi” and made threatening comments against him on social media.
Failing to get a grand jury to indict is exceptionally rare. Pirro has accused juries of being politicized and told the Daily Beast in a statement earlier this month that the system in D.C. “is broken on many levels.”
On Tuesday, the president stepped out to eat at a local restaurant to tout that D.C. has purportedly become safer, but in another sign that residents are not particularly supportive of his takeover of the city, he and his entourage were loudly heckled.
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