D.C. citizens are humiliating Donald Trump

After the wump-wump at the start of every Law & Order episode, the narrator mentions how police investigate crime with attorneys prosecute accused criminals. The little speech jumps right over the part in between, the part where a grand jury composed of local citizens indicts the accused.

That’s because this step is usually viewed as a given. As the old adage says, “You can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.“ You probably could. But former Fox News anchor Jeanine Pirro definitely can’t.

She also can’t indict someone who throws one.

On Wednesday, a Washington DC jury reportedly laughed at prosecutors from Pirro’s office who attempted to solicit felony charges against a man accused of flinging a sub sandwich at an ICE officer. This rejection follows another case in which Bondi’s DOJ failed three times to secure an indictment on charges of felony assault against a woman accused of “forcefully pushing” an ICE agent’s hand.

Prosecutors being unable to persuade a grand jury is extraordinarily rare, but it’s becoming commonplace during Trump’s military occupation of the nation’s capital.

The grand jury process is heavily biased in favor of prosecutors, who can present whatever evidence they want to the jury, so it’s notable to have grand juries routinely rejecting the government’s cases. … The Trump administration’s failure to secure indictments come as U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has directed prosecutors to seek the harshest charges possible against people who are arrested in Washington—but prosecutors are now having to either reduce or drop charges altogether as they fail in court, the Times notes.

Trump’s idea of justice is better known as simple cruelty. Nothing else should be expected from a man who has already made it clear he supports executing the innocent rather than admitting a mistake. While the media may insist on reporting that Trump is engaged in a crime crackdown, the citizens serving on grand juries clearly recognize that the real crime is Trump’s occupation of the city and misuse of the National Guard, local police, and Justice Department.

LA grand juries also refused to indict during the military occupation in that cit, leaving Trump-appointed U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli screaming in frustration.

Although his office filed felony cases against at least 38 people for alleged misconduct that either took place during last month’s protests or near the sites of immigration raids, many have been dismissed or reduced to misdemeanor charges. In total, he has secured only seven indictments, which usually need to be obtained no later than 21 days after the filing of a criminal complaint.

A big part of the problem for both Pirro and Essayli is that, not only has Trump forced them to file charges so harsh no jury will agree, Attorney General Pam Bondi has also insisted that U.S. attorneys ignore the manual of justice.

The rules there require that prosecutors only bring cases where there is a reasonable expectation of winning a verdict. Bondi is insisting that U.S. attorneys go in from of grand juries with cases that are obvious losers.The idea is to hand Trump a stack of show trials to bloviate, lie, and tweet about. Only the repeated failures to secure indictments has given Trump and his legal hack squad nothing but a heap of humiliation.

Trump can wreck the independence of the DOJ, Stephen Miller can use ICE as the American Gestapo, and Bondi can order US attorneys to go into court without evidence of a crime. But right now, the fascist wave is breaking against a humble collection of quiet heroes: The women and men who have come in to serve that most thankless of civic responsibilities, jury duty.

For now, the reaction from the Trump administration has been to reduce some of these charges to misdemeanors. That makes it possible to move to trial without a grand jury indictment. That’s what happened in the case of hand-pusher Sidney Reid. Whether Bondi and Pirro can actually convince a jury to convict Reid is still to be seen.

Of course, if those jurors keep refusing to give Trump the show trials that he craves, he hinted at an alternative method for delivering injustice on social media last year.

Former President Donald Trump amplified posts on social media calling for a televised military tribunal for former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney and the jailing of top elected officials, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump allies have continued to push the idea of going after his perceived enemies using military tribunals rather than civilian courts. Is this legal? No. But these are the same people who have completely ignored legal decisions to ship non-criminals to lifetime slavery. And this Supreme Court has repeatedly demonstrated that it is unconcerned with giving even passing acknowledgment to the Constitution.

Have they proposed a firing squad for minor offenses? No yet. But Trump wants to see people hurt, Bondi wants to give him show trials, and D.C. jurors are getting in the way.

So don't worry. They’ll get there.