Prosecutors are dropping yet another case in which they claimed a Washington, D.C., resident had assaulted a federal agent during President Donald Trump’s crime crackdown, the latest in a string of embarrassing walkbacks by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for D.C.
Mark Bigelow was arrested in August for allegedly having an open container of alcohol in the back of a van. Police claimed he resisted arrest and struck a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent while being taken into custody.
With Pirro’s office eager to hype Trump’s federal takeover of policing in the city, prosecutors initially charged Bigelow with felony assault of a federal agent, which can carry a prison term of up to eight years. It was one of many cases in which prosecutors appeared to be overcharging D.C. residents with serious crimes just to send a message about Trump’s takeover.
Pirro’s office later reduced the charge to a misdemeanor, likely after it became clear prosecutors would not prevail in a felony case. But now prosecutors are seeking to drop the misdemeanor charge as well.
In a filing Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Seidel asked the judge to dismiss the case “with prejudice,” meaning the case would be thrown out and no new charges would be brought against Bigelow. Dismissal, Seidel wrote, would “serve the interests of justice.”
