Biden-Appointed U.S. District Attorney Refused to Prosecute 67% of Those Arrested in Nation’s Capital

Crime has spiked in Washington, DC, in recent months after Biden-appointed United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Matthew Graves, refused to prosecute 67 percent of those arrested who would have been put on trial in the D.C. Superior Court, according to 2022 District statistics.

Among those Graves declined to prosecute were some 52 percent of all felony arrests, along with 72 percent of misdemeanor arrests, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Annual Statistical Reports revealed. 

Graves, who was nominated by President Joe Biden on July 26, 2021, and confirmed on October 28, 2021, admitted to the Washington Post the lack of prosecutions has mostly applied to those arrests for gun possession, drug possession, and burglaries.

He said he mostly prosecutes those who were charged with homicides, armed car-jackings, assaults with intent to kill, and first-degree sexual assault cases.

“The bottom line is that it creates the impression that this is an across the board decrease in the number of cases we are bringing. That is simply not true,” Graves said.

Despite his claims, overall crime has soared across the District by 22 percent since 2022, D.C. crime statistics from Wednesday show. Sex abuse is up 110 percent. Homicides are up 19 percent. Property crime is up 27 percent, and motor vehicle theft has soared 108 percent.

“Since 2019, we have been taking more time at arrest to determine if we are going to file charges,” Graves tried to explain the soaring crime rates. “With body-worn camera and the proliferation of surveillance cameras, we have more information at the charging stage to assess the strength of the evidence we would be presenting later to courts and juries.”

D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee III pushed back against the Biden-appointed District attorney. “I can promise you, it’s not MPD holding the bag on this,” Contee defended the District’s police department. “That’s B.S.”

Soaring crime in the nation’s capital has recently become national news. On Saturday, just blocks away from the Capitol Building, Sen Rand Paul’s (R-KY) staffer was randomly attacked on the 1300 block of H Street Northeast. The suspect, identified as 42-year-old, black district resident Glynn Neal, told law enforcement he launched the attack because “voices” in his head told him to do it, according to NBC4 Washington.

The attack occurred on the same street where Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) was accosted in her apartment building on February 9. Last year on H street, a Washington Football Team player was shot in an attempted carjacking.

The violence has not appeared to worry the D.C. council, which recently passed a law to reduce punishments for criminals. That bill was vetoed by the mayor but the council overrode the mayor’s veto with a dominant number of votes. The bill was ultimately blocked after a congressional resolution, crafted by Republicans, was signed by Biden due to political pressure.