For the third week, federal forces continue to perform law enforcement duties in the District of Columbia pursuant to President Trump’s efforts to combat an alleged epidemic of crime there. This is despite the Department of Justice’s data indicating that violent crime in the district is at a 30-year low. The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has instructed federal prosecutors to seek the highest possible charges against arrestees and to attempt to hold arrestees in pretrial detention. Some law enforcement encounters have raised questions about their legality, with a local U.S. Magistrate Judge recently describing one case as involving “the most illegal search I’ve ever seen in my life,” according to this report. Separately, the executive branch has announced plans to similarly deploy federal law enforcement in other cities like Chicago and New York, according to this story. Read on for more criminal law news. New Executive Orders on Criminal Law. On August 25, President Trump signed a trio of executive orders affecting criminal law and procedure. Two of the orders target the practice of cashless bail. The more general order is directed at state and local jurisdictions that have eliminated or significantly reduced the use of cash bail for crimes involving a serious threat to public safety. The order requests that executive agency and department heads identify federal funding flowing to such jurisdictions for potential suspension or termination. The more specific order directed at D.C. orders federal law enforcement officials to hold arrestees in pretrial detention to the [...]
Faculty Coordinators
