Attorney General Pam Bondi promised “severe consequences” for anyone who assaults federal agents during immigration operations nationwide, but in four Democratic cities with liberal jury pools, over half of the individuals charged with assaulting federal law enforcement have had their charges reduced, according to a new report.
Police and court data from Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, and Washington, all cities where the administration flooded Border Patrol to help ICE, revealed that of 100 people initially charged with assaulting a federal agent, 55 saw charges reduced to a misdemeanor or dismissed, according to the Associated Press.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly characterized them as domestic terrorists, though 40% of all charges were misdemeanors. Of those initially charged, 23 of the 100 pleaded guilty, receiving a lesser charge as part of deals with prosecutors, and five of the defendants have gone to trial and been acquitted.
Bondi stated in August that the Trump administration would not tolerate harm against federal police, as Border Patrol agents were surged to the frontlines to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with arresting illegal immigrants in the United States.
“If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you,” Bondi said.
The Justice Department’s failure to secure more aggressive charges against protesters came in part because grand juries in the liberal cities rejected felony indictments, forcing the DOJ to reduce charges in some cases to misdemeanors, which do not require a grand jury. Video and testimony that did not support initial assault claims also helped undermine some cases, the AP found.
In Washington, D.C., the DOJ has struggled to build aggressive cases against anti-ICE protesters due to jury nullification, which is when jurors clear a defendant not because they think he or she is innocent, but because they don’t agree with the law being enforced or the motives of the law enforcement officers.
DHS DENIES ILHAN OMAR CLAIM THAT ICE PULLED OVER SON: ‘ZERO RECORD … ZERO PROOF’
The Department of Homeland Security has touted soaring assaults against federal law enforcement since Trump took office in January, 238 incidents as of late November, compared to the 19 occurances during the same time frame in 2024.