Grand juries rarely refuse to indict, and multiple refusals in a single month are especially uncommon because prosecutors typically avoid weak cases. President Trump's deployment of federal law enforcement in Washington, D.C. coincided with at least five grand-jury refusals to indict D.C. residents accused of attacking federal officers. The refusals include rebukes in the cases of Alvin Summers and Sean Charles Dunn and three refusals tied to Sidney Lori Reid. Judges have grown impatient with prosecutorial missteps and sloppy cases. The deployment followed an August 11 announcement claiming an emergency despite violent crime being at a 30-year low.
But Donald Trump's desire to crack down on crime in Washington, D.C., seems to have come at the cost of that good judgment. Over the past month, federal prosecutors in D.C. have failed at least five times to persuade a grand jury to indict a D.C. resident for allegedly attacking federal law enforcement. These are not the only embarrassments suffered recently by federal prosecutors in the District,
The most recent rebuke by a grand jury involves the case of Alvin Summers, who allegedly scuffled with a U.S. Park Police officer after driving his car onto the Mall. Before that came a grand jury's refusal to indict Sean Charles Dunn, the man now memorialized as "Sandwich Guy," who hurled a salami sub at a Customs and Border Protection agent early in Trump's federal deployment across the capital.
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