Donald Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington, D.C. appears to be descending into chaos, and flooding its overburdened courts, U.S. media reported.
The push is being driven by U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro, who urged prosecutors to file charges in federal court and pursue the harshest counts they can muster.
Defense attorneys across the capital say the strategy is dragging weaker cases into the system, with minor infractions being elevated into federal-level crimes, CNN reported.
D.C.’s federal district court would usually see about 6 new cases a week. Since Trump’s federal takeover, that number has risen drastically to about 6 a day, and in some instances into double digits.
D.C.’s local Superior Court has also faced more than 100 new criminal defendants on multiple days, roughly double its usual daily caseload.
“It’s a real mess right now,” AJ Kramer, the federal public defender for D.C., told CNN.
One of the driving factors, according to the report, is that the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office, overseen by former Fox News host Pirro, has been directed to pursue the most serious charge possible in each case and to bring more cases to federal court, even when the underlying offense is relatively minor.
That approach included Pirro’s failed attempt to pursue a felony assault charge against a man accused of throwing a sandwich at a federal law enforcement officer in downtown D.C.
Prosecutors have also been instructed to keep more defendants in jail while awaiting their first court appearance, even if they are charged with nonviolent or petty crimes.
On Monday, a judge in D.C.’s Superior Court stated that he was handling 125 cases in a single day due to the surge in arrests resulting from the crackdown.
Felony cases in the court are getting so backlogged that some defendants won’t get their first court appearance until 2027, meaning they could wait possibly years before a trial or plea deal in their case.
“It has been a nightmare,” a source familiar with the D.C. federal public defender’s office told CNN. “It has overloaded the entire system. It has been pretty unmanageable. The strain on the court system is real. The rate of new cases coming in is not sustainable.”
The White House said Monday that more than 1,000 arrests have been made since Trump announced the federal takeover on Aug. 7, including the detention of alleged gang members and the seizure of roughly 10 firearms.
Douglas Buchanan, spokesperson for D.C.’s court system, told CNN the current pace of arrests and charges is “simply not sustainable” and “only stands to grow worse.”
“Not so much for us, but for those we serve,” Buchanan said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
The D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office and the White House did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.
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