Why has Biden not replaced Graves?

[Anonymous]

In the circular firing squad that is DC's failure to address crime, there is the Mayor, the Council, MPD, DCAG Racine and then US Attorney Graves. The Biden administration has the power to replace Graves with someone who would be more aggressive about prosecutions. One of the Dems' biggest weaknesses is that they are too soft on crime because of the policies pushed by the progressive wing of the party (with the DC Council being the laboratory for some of those failed experiments). Biden can't do anything about the makeup of the DC Council but can and should replace Graves.

[Anonymous]

What is the process for that?

[Anonymous]

Good luck with that. Graves was mainly picked for J6 prosecutions. He's going nowhere. He and his wife are quite hooked up in Dem circles and Biden is pleased with J6 performance. Doesn't seem like that work is ending any time soon.

The no paper rate actually began to tick up at the end of Obama's term, and increased over Trump and Biden's terms. Not just Graves per se.

Career prosecutors may also be a factor. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/04/politics/black-prosecutors-dc-gun-cases/index.html When Graves suspended prosecutorial discretion in a Chinatown pilot project for a time, rates went up significantly, all other things often cited as issues, being equal. Was noted in a WP article.

DOJ (and Congress with oversight capabilities over DOJ, NO hearings yet held re: DC USAO) could bring metrics for performance in line with public safety goals. and provide Graves with resources needed. No other USA does local criminal prosecution. Right now metrics for office penalize losing trials, makes sense re: management of resources if prosecuting other types of crime, incentive here to settle more.

DC juries are a real factor too though. In many cases a plead down sentence may be the best you can do. Of course, there are still all the no papered cases...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the process for that?

Biden can fire him and appoint someone new.

[Anonymous]

A better question is why the D.C. government - either the council or the mayor - doesn’t push Graves to prosecute more. They successfully pushed former U.S. Attorney on hate crimes (after having hearings regarding the low prosecution of them). Democrats in Congress have repeatedly said that they support D.C. and want to do what they can to help them.

Yet there’s no push to actually change things. People like Mendelson will keep blaming the low prosecution rates, but then won’t do anything to actually change those. Members of the council wrote Graves pushing him to prosecute the civilian who shot the car thief, but as far as I know they haven’t pushed him on anything else.

The only answer I can think of for this inaction is that they’re fine with the low prosecution rate and level of crime (their votes demonstrate this as well). Graves is a good scapegoat when things get really bad - certainly we have a ton of people here who point to him every time people call out the council. But in the end they don’t care about the issue, and so won’t do anything substantively to address it.

[Anonymous]

This thread may raise your blood pressure, OP

[Anonymous]

Ummm, DCAG is gone. It is Schwalb now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, DCAG is gone. It is Schwalb now.

Thanks to lack of statehood, the DC attorney general's office doesn't have authority to prosecute most crimes. It's the US attorneys office and DC has little authority.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that Graves has to work with the labor pool he inherited at USAO-DC. Career staff are exercising discretion to not prosecute.

He may need to roll a few heads to change the culture of the office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the process for that?

Biden can fire him and appoint someone new.

And what reason would be given for firing him? Because you don't like crime levels in DC? That's not a valid reason.

[Anonymous]

If Graves is doing fine on J6 prosecutions then maybe the answer is to let him keep doing that, but provide Graves with a backup and extra staff for the rest of the DC crime prosecutions.

Maybe some of the "connected" folks on this board should be making that suggestion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If Graves is doing fine on J6 prosecutions then maybe the answer is to let him keep doing that, but provide Graves with a backup and extra staff for the rest of the DC crime prosecutions.

Maybe some of the "connected" folks on this board should be making that suggestion.

Bring up some aggressive, ambitious AUSAs from Texas or somewhere on a special detail to prosecute local D.C. crimes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My guess is that Graves has to work with the labor pool he inherited at USAO-DC. Career staff are exercising discretion to not prosecute.

He may need to roll a few heads to change the culture of the office.

I think this is an accurate assessment. It’s been mentioned before that right around the time Graves took over there were many actual career prosecutors that retired or left the office for other reasons. You have to remember that the current environment isn’t (and hasn’t been for quite some time) conducive to hiring prosecutors in progressive cities who actually want to be prosecutors, as opposed to those “prosecutors” who think they can effectuate criminal justice reform from the inside but actually have little desire or aptitude for prosecuting street crime.

[Anonymous]

It could not be more obvious that everyone who matters is completely fine with both the current crime rate and their ability to point the finger somewhere else. Graves, Bowser, the Council, MPD, etc.

No help/change is coming. This is what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ummm, DCAG is gone. It is Schwalb now.

Thanks to lack of statehood, the DC attorney general's office doesn't have authority to prosecute most crimes. It's the US attorneys office and DC has little authority.

She means RACINE is gone as AG. Schwab was elected to replace him.