The move is an extraordinary setback of former Fox News host Janine Piro, Trump’s hand-selected US lawyer, following numerous other refusals by the DC Big Ju judge to approve felony charges.
Fox News’ Johnine Piro vowed as US lawyer for DC
Former Fox News host Janine Piro promised “There is no mercy for criminals” after being sworn in as a US lawyer for DC.
WASHINGTON – Another federal judge in the country’s capital accused the Justice Department of Feding a federal felony charge that, this time, failed to persuade a man who was threatened to kill President Donald Trump.
Failure to secure prosecution is another set for former Fox News host Janine Piro and a hand-picked US lawyer for Trump in the District of Columbia.
“It’s not fair to say they’re losing credibility. We’re past that now,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui said of Pirro’s office and the broader Justice Department during the Sept. 4 hearing, The Associated Press reported.
“There’s no reliability left,” Faruqui later said, according to the AP.
Piro spokesman Tim Lauer has confirmed that after the federal ju trial lawsuit, the office has dismissed the felony charges against Edward Alexander Dana and filed a misdemeanor charge in the Superior Court.
Dana was initially accused of attempting to “harm physically harm the US president” after smashing light fixtures at a DC bar on August 17th.
This is the latest in at least five cases where the DC Ju Court refused to indict people on felony charges filed in Piro’s office, according to legal experts who track media reports and lawsuits.
Pirro’s office says it will be as proactively charged as possible as part of Trump’s criminal crackdown in the district.
In one particularly well-known case, the prosecutor charged a DC man who was caught on video throwing sandwiches at federal agents for a misdemeanor crime after failing to persuade the large ju judge to return a more serious felony charge against him.
In another case, the Federal Jury in DC refused to indict an Indiana woman accused of threatening to kill Trump. Natalie Rose Jones, 50, of Lafayette, Indiana, was arrested in Washington on August 16th in Washington during a social media charge of a death threat against Trump and an interview with a Secret Service agent.
In Dana’s case, he was reportedly drunk and, in the course of other rambling statements, vowed to fight fascism even if it meant killing the president, including singing behind the police car and claiming he was in the Russian mafia, according to CBS News. Dana was unarmed.
Dana’s lawyer and federal government’s public defense attorney, Elizabeth Marin, told The Associated Press that prosecutors should know that his “hyperbolic rambling” does not pose a crime threat.
“A 15-year-old would know,” Marin said. “It was obvious from the beginning.”
It is very rare for a large ju trial to refuse to return the charges after the prosecutor brings evidence and witnesses before them.
According to data from 2010 Judicial Statistics Data, only 11 of the approximately 162,000 federal cases were not charged, so the large ju judge issued just 0.0068% of “no true bill.” This means that the large ju trial was carried out in line with the demands of prosecutors who are prosecuting more than 99.99% of federal lawsuits.
“Threatening a president’s life is one of the most serious crimes and one of the crimes that we encounter quick and unwavering prosecution. Don’t make any mistakes. Justches will be served,” Piro said in an August 18 news release.
In Jones’ case, Secret Service officials said that Instagram user account “nath.Jones” posted threatening comments about the US president from August 2nd to August 9th, the Justice Department said in its release. “Instagram users called for the removal of President Trump, naming him a terrorist, calling his administration a dictatorship, and saying that President Trump caused extreme and unnecessary loss of life in connection with the coronavirus,” the DOJ said.
However, the big ju court refused to hand over the charges on felony charges against Jones, her attorney said in a court application on September 2, the Associated Press reported.
Judge says DOJ “robbers with police like a child.”
Falki, a former federal prosecutor, was critical of the other failed felony charges that Piro wanted. According to a CBS News reporter in the room, during Dana’s hearing on September 4th, he was furious with prosecutors in the case, as well as the US lawyers’ office and the Department of Justice.
Reporter Scott MacFarlane reported in a series of X posts that the judge said he had charged prosecutors with apologies for indicting him and custodying him for almost a week.
“We behave like this is all normal,” MacFarlane quoted Falky as saying. He also said the judge accused the Trump administration of “child-like police officers and robbers.”
“What are there to prevent people from curling up from the streets?” the judge also asked.
The White House said on September 4th that more than 1,800 people have been arrested since Trump’s anti-crime crackdown began on August 7th. Over 40 cases have been filed in the district court.
Contribution: Nick Pensenstadler
