Senior federal prosecutor who presided over DC.'s crime crackdown demoted, sources say

Source: msn/Reuters

12h


WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - A top federal prosecutor who presided over President Donald Trump's crackdown on violent crime in the nation's capital has been demoted, according to four sources familiar with the matter. Jonathan Hornok, who was tapped to oversee criminal prosecutions for the federal prosecutor's office in Washington, remains on staff but is no longer in a supervisory role, one of the people added.

Reuters could not immediately determine the reason for his removal, which occurred late last week. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office declined to comment. Hornok did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Hornok was promoted to criminal chief by former Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, a close ally of Trump, and remained on the job after Jeanine Pirro took over as top prosecutor of the Washington office.

In August, when Trump's Washington D.C. crime crackdown started, Hornok ordered federal prosecutors to charge every case federally, rather than bringing lesser charges in D.C.'s superior court. That approach has arguably backfired, leading grand juries to decline to issue indictments in some cases. In one case, a jury acquitted a former Justice Department employee on misdemeanor assault charges for hurling a sandwich at a federal agent. The case went to trial after a grand jury previously declined to indict the man on felony charges.

In the early days of the crackdown, the federal court and the U.S. Attorney's office, which has lost dozens of lawyers since January, struggled with the new mandate to charge every case it could. As a result, some defendants languished in jail longer than they should have, leading one magistrate judge to criticize the office for trampling on people's civil liberties.


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