Trump’s grand jury gamble is exposing the limits of his loyal prosecutors

Darin Smith is only one of many federal prosecutors who have messed up things so badly that he didn't just lose a case, but had a slate of his cases dismissed due to his errors.

AlterNet reported last week that Smith botched a prosecution so badly that a "slam dunk" murder case had to be rejiggered with an all new grand jury. Charges in nine cases that were tossed.

The New York Times wrote about Smith on Tuesday, along with a slate of federal prosecutors who are continuing to undermine President Donald Trump's Justice Department across the country.

Smith's mistake "pointed to a more important problem," said the Times report. "As Mr. Trump has demanded more and more charges against those he perceives as his opponents, prosecutors have felt pressure to push weak cases through grand juries. And that, in turn, has led to an erosion in faith in the Justice Department by both the grand jurors themselves and the judges considering the cases."

As Smith faced off against one judge, another in Chicago was hammering a top DOJ official, Andrew S. Boutros, who was on hand to apologize on behalf of the office as a whole for misconduct. In that case, the DOJ went after six activists and officials accused of impeding police during a protest as Trump's immigration raid moved across the city.

Judge April Perry lambasted Boutros and others after it was found that prosecutors were talking to jurors outside of court, which is against the rules. They also removed any grand jurors they found out were going to vote against them. Then they tried to cover it all up.

“I have read hundreds, if not thousands, of grand jury transcripts involving prosecutors who are the most junior of prosecutors to several U.S. attorneys who appeared before the grand jury,” Judge Perry said. “I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.”

“These few cases are not representative of DOJ’s overall achievements to date,” claimed DOJ spokesperson Natalie Baldassare, “and we will not be deterred in our efforts to hold criminals accountable and keep the American people safe.”

MS NOW legal analyst Barb McQuade told the Times that she'd never heard of a case in which a judge investigated the grand jury out of fear of misconduct by prosecutors.

“Courts almost never do that, mostly because they trust that the government is acting honestly,” McQuade said. “But if the department demonstrates that it isn’t worthy of that trust, then it invites judges to look under the hood.”

It's part of a larger problem with Trump's ongoing demands to prosecute his perceived political enemies, the report said.

Smith got lucky in that a new grand jury would be called in at least one of his cases. There was a risk that he could have gotten the case dismissed entirely.

At issue is that Trump has prioritized loyalty above all else, including experience. So, senior officials are being hired with no idea what they're doing.

"Junior prosecutors typically attend a weeklong course on the ins and outs of working with grand juries, and often trail more seasoned colleagues before they take the lead in presenting cases," recalled the report. "But leaders in politically appointed posts do not get the same kind or amount of training."

That was on full display when a Trump appointee was forced to resign after he refused to file charges against former FBI Director James Comey. Trump found a lawyer willing to do it, but in making the switch, judges ruled Trump couldn't simply keep appointing new people over and over again. The court ultimately rejected the cases in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Even Judge Jeanine Pirro had a tough time scoring indictments despite her experience. During the occupation of the National Guard in Washington D.C. many protesters were arrested and she attempted to throw the book at them. Grand juries repeatedly refused to return an indictment in several cases against protesters.

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