The US attorney’s office in Washington, DC, that’s run by Donald Trump-appointee Jeanine Pirro has struggled to secure a grand jury’s approval of at least one indictment in federal court this month, in an indication of possible issues arising with the office’s crackdown on crime.
In one case this month — related to an FBI agent and an immigration officer allegedly scrapping with a detainee — the federal grand jury in Washington voted “no” three times.
The court record doesn’t say why the grand jury refused to approve the felony assault charge against DC resident Sydney Lori Reid each time it was presented over the past month, after she was arrested in late July for assaulting or impeding federal officers.
Grand jury indictments are infamously easy to secure – and it is exceedingly rare for a grand jury to refuse to approve an indictment prosecutors present.
“We are the tip of the spear. We are the ones who take these cases into court, and the burden is on us to prove these cases. And we welcome that burden beyond a reasonable doubt,” US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, when asked by CNN’s Evan Perez about the grand jury’s refusal to indict in the Reid case.
“Sometimes a jury will buy it and sometimes they won’t. So be it,” Pirro added. “That’s the way the process works.”
In the federal system, a prosecutor must show the grand jury enough evidence for there to be probable cause of a crime, and they only need at least 12 grand jurors out of anywhere between 16 and 23 on the confidential panel to vote to indict.
However, the grand jury’s repeated refusal in Reid’s case comes as the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to law enforcement, especially with the federal takeover of policing in the city, has come under intense scrutiny.
Pirro’s office has also pushed in recent weeks for charging defendants in Washington with tougher crimes, especially in cases where a felony could be charged rather than a lesser misdemeanor and when the cases relate to assaulting police. Critics of the policy changes in Washington’s legal community have said the approach may lead to more charging of weaker cases that may not survive scrutiny in the justice system.
In the case the Washington-based grand jury didn’t approve, the prosecutor’s office had sought the indictment of Reid, who court filings say is a gang member, for assaulting an officer in July.
“An indictment has not been returned in this case,” Pirro’s office wrote in a public filing to the judge on Monday about Reid’s charges. “As was previously disclosed by the Court to defense counsel, a third grand jury returned a no true bill.”
Instead of the felony Pirro’s office had pushed for, Reid will be charged with a misdemeanor, prosecutors told the judge on Monday afternoon.
CNN has reached out to Reid’s attorneys. Lawyers from the federal public defender’s office who represent her told the New York Times in a statement late Monday, “Three grand juries have now declined to indict Ms. Reid for felony assault on a law enforcement officer … The U.S. attorney can try to concoct crimes to quiet the people, but in our criminal justice system, the citizens have the last word. We are anxious to present the misdemeanor case to a jury and to quickly clear Ms. Reid’s name.”
Reid has been appearing before a magistrate judge in DC’s federal court since the arrest while awaiting the indictment. Now that a misdemeanor will be charged, without needing a grand jury’s approval, she will be able to enter a plea.
Asked about the failure to get a felony indictment, Pirro’s office told CNN: “In spite of that a United States magistrate judge held there was probable cause that a felony assault on a federal officer had occurred.”
The statement referred to legal arguments the magistrate judge had held – another unusual note in the case – as the prosecutors struggled to secure an indictment. The disclosures on Monday that the US attorney’s office would charge Reid with a misdemeanor rather than a felony after failing to secure the indictment also ended that proceeding with the magistrate judge.
Investigators wrote in arrest papers that Reid struggled and fought with the immigration officer, “flailing her arms and kicking and had to be pinned against a cement wall,” so much so that the hand of an FBI agent who had tried to help during the fight scratched a cement wall.
Reid’s attorneys argued in a court filing this month that the federal prosecutors didn’t have enough indication of intent to charge the crime as a felony.
This story has been updated with comment from Jeanine Pirro.