An Associated Press review of 166 federal criminal cases shows that the Justice Department’s aggressive pursuit of protest‑related assaults has largely failed to secure convictions.
The DOJ’s Strategy and the Bondi Pledge
- Attorney General Pam Bondi pledged that protestors who assault or hinder federal officers would face “severe consequences.”
- The DOJ has launched a months‑long effort to prosecute those accused of assaulting federal officers during protests over President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and military deployments.
- The review found that the DOJ has struggled to deliver on Bondi’s pledge.
Key Findings from the AP Review
- Of 100 people initially charged with felony assault on federal agents, 55 saw their charges reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed.
- Prosecutors sometimes failed to secure grand jury indictments required for a felony prosecution, and video evidence often called initial allegations into question.
- In many cases, officers suffered minor or no injuries, undermining the felony assault requirement that the assault pose a serious bodily harm.
- “It’s clear from this data that the government is being extremely aggressive and charging for things that ordinarily wouldn’t be charged at all,” said Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor and director of Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy. “They appear to want to chill people from protesting against the administration’s mass deportation plans.”
Dropped and Reduced Charges
- Dana Briggs, a 70‑year‑old Air Force veteran, was charged in September with assault after a protest in Chicago. Video footage of federal agents knocking Briggs to the ground led prosecutors to drop the case, which had already been reduced to a misdemeanor.
- Lucy Shepherd, 28, was charged with felony assault after she brushed aside a federal officer’s arm outside Portland’s ICE facility. Her lawyers cited video showing she used “too little force to have been intended to inflict any kind of injury.”
Trial Outcomes
- The DOJ took five misdemeanor cases to trial, a move that surprised experts because such trials consume resources.
- All five trials ended in acquittals. Ronald Chapman II, a defense attorney, noted, “When the DOJ tries to take a swing at someone, they should hit 99.9% of the time. And that’s not happening.”
- The most high‑profile loss was Sean Charles Dunn, a Washington, D.C., man who tossed a sandwich at a Border Patrol agent. He was acquitted on Nov. 6 after a two‑day trial.
- In Los Angeles, Katherine Carreño was acquitted on a misdemeanor assault charge stemming from an August protest outside a federal building.
Pending Cases and DHS Statistics
- Prosecutors have secured felony indictments against 58 people, some of whom were initially charged with misdemeanors.
- More than 50 cases remain pending; none have yet gone to trial.
- From the start of Trump’s second term through Nov. 24, the Department of Homeland Security reported 238 assaults on ICE personnel nationwide. The agency declined to provide a list or details about how it defines assaults.
- “Rioters and other violent criminals have threatened our law enforcement officers, thrown rocks, bottles, and fireworks at them, slashed the tires of their vehicles, rammed them, ambushed them, and even shot at them,” said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
Rhetoric vs Reality
- The administration has deployed troops to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago to support federal agents.
- Trump has sought to justify these deployments by labeling immigration protesters as “antifa,” a term the president has aimed to designate as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
- The AP review found a handful of references to “antifa” in court records but no case in which federal authorities officially accused a protester of being a domestic terrorist or part of an organized effort to attack federal agents.
- “We will not tolerate any violence directed toward our brave law enforcement officials who are working tirelessly to keep Americans safe,” said Natalie Baldassarre, a DOJ spokesperson. She added that the DOJ will continue to seek the most serious available charges against those alleged to have put federal agents in harm’s way.
Key Takeaways
- The DOJ’s aggressive prosecutions have largely failed, with 55 of 100 felony assault charges reduced or dismissed.
- All five misdemeanor trials ended in acquittals, illustrating a disconnect between DOJ strategy and courtroom outcomes.
- More than 50 cases remain pending, and DHS reports 238 assaults on ICE personnel nationwide, yet the DOJ has struggled to secure convictions.
The review underscores a pattern of aggressive charging that rarely translates into convictions, raising questions about the effectiveness of the Justice Department’s approach to protest‑related offenses.
