Donald Trump's use of the Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue his perceived adversaries has encountered an unexpected obstacle, according to Politico's Wednesday report.
Despite campaigning on a promise of "retribution," the president and the DOJ are discovering that grand juries have become a significant impediment to prosecuting Trump's opponents.
High-profile cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, along with lower-level prosecutions of anti-ICE protesters, are struggling to advance to trial. Grand juries are declining to indict at unusually high rates—a rare occurrence that signals resistance to the administration's prosecutorial agenda.
According to Politico reporter Josh Gerstein, "Grand juries have emerged as a major stumbling block for Trump's drive to use the criminal courts." He added, "In the Trump era, grand juries are no longer a rubber stamp."
University of Dayton law professor Thaddeus Hoffmeister observed that grand juries "have been resurrected." He noted, "For a long time, many people have been questioning why we even have grand juries. Like, what's the purpose? They don't do anything. They don't protect people. And then the last couple months, we start to see that, maybe the founding fathers were right about this."
The administration's efforts to advance controversial policies including mass deportations and militarized law enforcement have created complications for DOJ prosecutors. Gerstein reports, "Dozens of recent cases in Washington, D.C., have been met with so-called 'no bills'—the shorthand for a grand jury declining to return a bill of indictment. And grand juries in other jurisdictions have turned down high-profile cases that Trump has prioritized."
Trump's DOJ has suffered significant losses in Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Alexandria and Norfolk, Virginia. Former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer commented, "We are now realizing the power that we have as individual citizens. When we see things like grand juries voting not to return an indictment, it is an important reminder that we, the citizens, all have power to resist and push back and to save our democracy."
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