A judge dismissed a felony case Tuesday brought against a Washington, D.C., man whom prosecutors had accused of spitting at two National Guard members during President Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital.
The dismissal amounted to another embarrassing walkback by the office of Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host who is now Trump’s U.S. attorney for D.C. Prosecutors filed several cases accusing D.C. residents of assaulting federal agents, only to see the charges fall apart in a matter of weeks or even days.
During a hearing in federal court Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Caelainn Carney said the government moved to withdraw the felony charge against Scott Pichon after reviewing the evidence in the case. Carney had filed a motion last week saying dismissing the matter would be “in the interests of justice.”
The original charge carried prison time of up to eight years. Instead, the government is prosecuting Pichon in city court on a less serious misdemeanor charge.
Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh seemed visibly annoyed during the Tuesday hearing, saying the U.S. Attorney’s Office had been wasting the court’s time with felony charges that went nowhere. He said the office should have reviewed the evidence closely before bringing such a serious charge.
