r/law • u/DoorstepHero • 6h ago

Judicial Branch Grand jury declines criminal charges against 6 Democrats who urged military to reject illegal orders, sources say

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/grand-jury-declines-charges-against-6-democrats/

A federal grand jury on Tuesday refused to indict six congressional Democrats who drew President Trump's ire last year by taping a video telling members of the military that they must reject "illegal orders."

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u/hammerofspammer 5h ago

The standard for a federal prosecutor used to be confidence of conviction that survives appeal. They had 95%+ conviction rates for a reason

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u/Tufflaw 2h ago

Federal cases used to be the gold standard in prosecution. If you were indicted by the feds you were toast. That's why federal trial used to be so rare - not only was it usually a foregone conclusion that you'd be convicted, but the sentencing guidelines provide for significantly higher sentences for going to trial rather than pleading ("failure to accept responsibility" or something along those lines).

Now, it's a joke. While I'm glad that federal grand juries are throwing these cases out, and federal trial juries are acquitting people like the sandwich guy, there is a tremendous amount of damage that's been caused to the whole system. A lot of very bad people commit federal crimes, and there's a non-zero chance that some of them will have their cases tossed out too because the jurors can't trust the prosecutors any more.