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applegrove

(133,207 posts) Tue May 26, 2026, 05:19 PM 8 hrs ago

Federal Prosecutors Struggle With Grand Juries

Federal Prosecutors Struggle With Grand Juries

May 26, 2026 at 6:03 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 31 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2026/05/26/federal-prosecutors-struggle-with-grand-juries/

“Grand juries are the heart of the criminal justice system, the inner sanctum where prosecutors, working unchecked and in secret, have enormous power to indict their fellow citizens,” the New York Times reports.

“But under President Trump, the Justice Department has had serious difficulties presenting cases to grand juries, running into problems that would have seemed unthinkable a year ago.”

“In the past several months, prosecutors have repeatedly failed to persuade grand juries that the cases they have brought warrant criminal charges. And if it were not unusual enough, they have also been admonished at least three times since last November by federal judges who have accused them of misconduct.”

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Federal Prosecutors Struggle With Grand Juries (Original Post) applegrove 8 hrs ago OP

"I honestly thought the job of the grand jury was to railroad innocent people quickly struggle4progress 7 hrs ago #1

Props to the citizens of the District of Columbia.. Princess Turandot 6 hrs ago #2

struggle4progress

(126,730 posts)

1. "I honestly thought the job of the grand jury was to railroad innocent people quickly

Reply to applegrove (Original post)

Tue May 26, 2026, 05:49 PM

7 hrs ago

through the Kangaroo Court"

Princess Turandot

(4,933 posts)

2. Props to the citizens of the District of Columbia..

Reply to applegrove (Original post)

Tue May 26, 2026, 07:08 PM

6 hrs ago

Doing your civic duty in the courts, despite not having any federal voting representation in Congress. (I realize that there have been some failed indictments in Virginia as well.)

It's hard to imagine listening to witnesses with a straight face for the crime of felony sandwich flinging.

I've served on the grand jury in NYS Supreme Court. While the procedures in federal court might well be different, in NYS, 11 votes are needed to indict, out of maximum of 21 jurors. At least 15 jurors had to be there to hear the case. So rather than a unanimous vote, they needed as little as 51%, if everyone was there. One curious thing was that the prosecutors just called witnesses, then read us the criminal code that applied. IIRC they made no arguments to show us how the evidence supported the indictment.

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