The top DC prosecutor who has hunted down over 1,300 Jan. 6 protesters so far and charged them to the hilt, reportedly gave some violent criminals a pass.
U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who was appointed by President Biden in 2021, has come under withering criticism for fixating on Jan. 6 participants while shirking his duties as a prosecutor concerning local violent crimes. Crime rates have skyrocketed in DC under Graves’ watch.
“Graves announced this month his office had brought charges against more than 1,300 defendants involved in the Jan. 6 riot since 2021. He has secured convictions through plea deals or jury trials for most of them. The charges have ranged from minor trespassing violations to rare seditious conspiracy felonies,” the Washington Examiner reported.
According to the media outlet, former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy noted that the Department of Justice “would ordinarily not charge” minor infractions such as those leveled against the Jan. 6 defendants.
Biden DC U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves has blood on his hands.
He diverted, politicized, and weaponized federal law-enforcement to go after Trump supporters.
And he allows violent crime to run rampant in DC.
Now this 23-year-old Catholic volunteer is murdered.
Impeach Graves. https://t.co/Qhn0mlSCp9
— Mike Davis (@mrddmia) January 21, 2024
“As dictated by the Biden DOJ, the DC-USAO has pressed these cases in the service of the Democrats’ political hyperbole, which ludicrously portrays the Capitol riot as on a historic par with 9/11 and Pearl Harbor,” McCarthy asserted.
“For three years, this has involved diverting finite law-enforcement resources away from far more serious crime, even though that serious crime has engulfed Washington, DC,” he remarked.
Graves’ rate for declining to prosecute local violent crime has been scrutinized in comparison to his aggressively persecuting Jan. 6 protesters. In 2022, his rate of declination hit almost 70% according to the Washington Examiner.
“Homicides, guns, robberies, and carjackings were a grim theme in Washington in 2023. Homicides were higher than they had been in at least 20 years, and carjackings doubled over the previous year, city data show,” the media outlet wrote.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves is scouring the country for trespassers at the Capitol, while Washington DC is dying from violent crime.
— AlstroemeriaSun (@AlstroemeriaSun) January 8, 2024
“Violent crime, while improving so far in 2024, ravaged the city last year, including by way of repeat offenders, raising questions about Graves’s efforts on the superior court side to penalize criminals. Graves indicated in January that a ‘surge of resources,’ directed to Graves’s office by Attorney General Merrick Garland, would help address the issue of violence,” the Washington Examiner noted.
People are naturally wondering if resources would be better used going after localized violent offenders rather than grandmothers who walked into the Capitol. Most of those charged in connection to Jan. 6 were non-violent but it seems as if Graves has a vendetta going that intends to sweep up every person with the slightest connection to that day, no matter how minor the offense.
DC U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves is making clear that the DOJ is now going to target Americans who were around the Capitol on J6 but did not enter the building pic.twitter.com/bj4i3QfHe9
— ALX (@alx) January 6, 2024
“It’s a complete mismanagement of resources. You have limited resources to begin with.” Brett Tolman, a former U.S. attorney appointed by former President George W. Bush, told the Washington Examiner in an interview.
The DOJ “took the FBI and other law enforcement all over this country away from really important crimes and violent crimes, took them off that and made this a priority, and it’s a combination of Graves and DOJ seeing this as a politically expedient moment,” Tolman contended.
The U.S. attorney’s office has reportedly assigned 3% of its full-time staff of federal prosecutors to go after Jan. 6 participants. That doesn’t include prosecutors outsourced by the U.S. attorney’s office to other cities in connection to Jan. 6.
“Graves declined to prosecute 67% of those arrested in superior court in fiscal 2022, the highest declination rate in at least the last 10 years. Amid pressure to answer for why two-thirds of arrests in the district resulted in no prosecution while violent crime was surging, Graves brought the declination rate down in fiscal 2023 to 56%, which is still the second-highest in at least the last decade. Graves’s office said it anticipates releasing new data in the coming days,” the Washington Examiner stated.
Graves keeps telling the public that the declination rate is misleading and it’s the underlying data that tells the real story. He claims almost all cases that were turned away were misdemeanors.
(Video Credit: WUSA9)
Graves’ office is maintaining a live database on Jan. 6 prosecutions. His lust for persecuting Jan. 6 participants has not been sated yet. He intends to go after many more before he’s done.
“The U.S. attorney honored the anniversary of the riot this year in an hourlong press conference, emphasizing that his office would continue to bring cases, including trespassing cases, and that it was seeking public assistance to identify roughly 80 wanted individuals who were allegedly violent toward police officers during the breach,” the Washington Examiner reported.
“He lamented the ‘collective harm’ that occurred when a mob stormed into restricted areas of the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. He said scenes that day were ‘often reminiscent of a medieval battle’ and noted how dozens of police officers were physically injured,” Graves claimed in an attempt to gin up even more animosity toward the protesters.
Last fall, the House Judiciary Committee hammered Graves over his prosecutorial decisions regarding Jan. 6.
.@RepMTG introduces articles of impeachment for U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves for refusing “to prosecute real criminals” and “abuse of power” pic.twitter.com/uLNy5cek36
— RSBN (@RSBNetwork) May 16, 2023
“A committee investigator asked Graves if disapproving reports ‘about individuals being treated more harshly because of their role in Jan. 6 than they would in a similarly situated crime’ were ‘unfair,’” the Washington Examiner recounted.
“What I can say generally is I am not aware of a similarly situated crime to Jan. 6,” Graves arrogantly responded.
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Author: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
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