Judge Zia M. Faruqui has delivered another legal setback to Trump-appointed D.C. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, rejecting her attempt to jail a local lawyer and West Point graduate. He called it “one of the weakest requests for detention” he had ever seen, according to WUSA9.
Anthony Bryant, a veteran who served in Afghanistan, was arrested Monday morning on charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding police, threatening a federal official, and threatening to kidnap or injure a person.
Pirro’s office claimed Bryant confronted National Guardsmen on 14th Street Sunday night, shouting “These are our streets!” and “I’ll kill you.” She also said Bryant bumped his shoulder into one of the Guardsmen. When police arrested him, they found a legally registered handgun.
Bryant was first released after his arrest, but Judge G. Michael Harvey ordered him back to jail on Wednesday. On Thursday, Judge Faruqui overturned that decision.
“This is perhaps one of the weakest requests for detention I have seen and something that, prior to two weeks ago, would have been unthinkable in this courthouse,” Faruqui said. He added that the government had “as close to zero” chance of proving Bryant was a real danger.
Bryant’s defense argued that the police left out key details in their report, including that Guardsmen yelled racial slurs at Bryant, who is Black. Since the National Guard does not wear body cameras, there was no video to back up the prosecution’s claims.
“To charge people for what seems to be lesser conduct and then say they’re so dangerous they have to be locked up,” Faruqui said, “puts prosecutors in an impossible position.”
Faruqui released Bryant, ordering him to surrender his firearms and avoid tense encounters. He also pointed out that keeping Bryant jailed for such a minor case contradicted the Justice Department’s decision to release many January 6 defendants who faced much more serious charges.
This case is the latest failure for Pirro’s office. Recently, three grand juries refused to indict a D.C. woman on felony charges after she allegedly stood between ICE agents and a person they were detaining. Prosecutors also came up short in trying to bring a felony case against the so-called “Subway Sandwich Thrower.”
