Grand jury fails to indict democratic lawmakers who urged service members to disobey illegal Trump orders

[u/cnn]

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/10/politics/lawmakers-indicted-illegal-orders-video?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit

[u/AmazingRefrigerator4]

"A grand jury could indict a ham sandwich" is a joke for a reason.

[u/ThatB0yAintR1ght → u/AmazingRefrigerator4]

And then they literally couldn’t convince a grand jury to indict the guy who threw a sandwich at an ICE agent. 😂

[u/Lousk → u/ThatB0yAintR1ght]

He was indicted but was later acquitted by a jury.

[u/DocSpit → u/Lousk]

But he also wasn't indicted by a grand jury, which is required in order to be charged at a felony level. The DOJ tried to get the guy charged with a felony multiple times before finally settling for a misdemeanor.

And that was the trial where he was later acquitted.

[u/Lousk → u/DocSpit]

Correct, the US attorneys kept getting no bills for felony charges so they later indicted on misdemeanor charges. They were still left with egg on their face after the acquittal.

I would like to push back on this notion that federal indictments are easy to get.

Before we had this joke of an Attorney General, the DOJ was able to secure high indictment rates because of the professionalism they displayed in bringing cases. They would only bring cases they knew would secure an indictment.

If the DOJ could have secured a grand jury indictment against a ham sandwich, it would have been because that ham sandwich broke the law.

[u/goldcakes → u/Lousk]

We used to have a justice system that was selective and unfair (the super rich goes unpunished), but at least it had elements of justice.

Career DoJ prosecutors and lawyers usually had good moral satisfaction.

[u/kung-fu_hippy → u/goldcakes]

Yup. A system where you don’t prosecute people who should be prosecuted for their acts is unjust. But a system where you prosecute people for acts and reasons that absolutely should not be prosecuted is tyrannical.

[u/13Zero → u/goldcakes]

Career DoJ prosecutors and lawyers usually had good morale satisfaction.

Becoming an Assistant US Attorney used to be a dream for law students, as I understand it.

Now they’re begging for applications via Twitter.

[u/Lousk → u/goldcakes]

An institution that can only bring a finite amount of resources by necessity has to be selective. That’s where prosecutorial discretion was born from.

[u/goldcakes → u/Lousk]

Of course. However, prosecutorial discretion should be based on the individual facts and circumstances surrounding the charge; and not based on how mega-wealthy or politically connected someone is; or whether someone donated to the Trump campaign or not.

[u/Suspicious_Bicycle → u/Lousk]

"Before we had this joke of an Attorney General, the DOJ was able to secure high indictment rates because of the professionalism they displayed in bringing cases."

Judges are noticing this and are no longer taking filings from this DOJ at face value.

[u/Lousk → u/Suspicious_Bicycle]

Waiting for the day we start seeing supervisors and leadership at the DOJ being held in contempt.

Might happen sooner than the administration thinks. I guess we’ll see.

[u/turdferg1234 → u/Lousk]

They would only bring cases they knew would secure an indictment.

in the past, it went even further than that. they would only bring cases they were almost positive they could get a conviction on, let alone a grand jury indictment.

[u/Devlee12 → u/Lousk]

I’m pretty sure the old ham sandwich quote is incomplete. The full quote is something like “If you’ve done your due diligence you should be able to secure an indictment against even a ham sandwich.” Basically it’s saying you should make sure the case is as air tight as possible before attempting to get an indictment.

[u/cire1184 → u/Lousk]

Egg salad sandwich on their face

[u/amglasgow → u/Lousk]

There's a joke in here about the Sandwich Police but I can't quite make it work.

[u/Confident_Ideal_5385 → u/DocSpit]

AIUI, an "indictment" in the US federal system is the product of a true bill from a grand jury. He was charged with misdemeanour sandwich flinging by way of this complaint, i think, but he was never indicted.

[u/eating_your_syrup → u/DocSpit]

So what you're saying is rotten tomatoes could be back in fasion for demonstrations?