The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee accused two activist organizations in the District on Tuesday of suborning jury nullification, saying they conduct training sessions to help city residents get onto trial juries and vote to acquit the people being prosecuted.
The groups, Free DC and Harriet’s Wildest Dreams, train residents on how to fool prosecutors into letting them onto a jury, then use that role to “protect our people,” said Rep. James Comer, committee chairman, who is leading the new investigation.
He said the groups may have helped train one of the jurors in the trial that acquitted Sean Dunn, the Department of Justice employee caught on video slinging a submarine sandwich at a federal immigration officer.
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Mr. Comer said urging jurors to go into a trial with the intention of voting for an acquittal — while hiding that motivation — subverts the right to an impartial jury.
“It is clear that the position of Free DC and Harriet’s Wildest Dreams is that potential jurors should not make decisions impartially based on applying the law as instructed to the facts presented before them in the case, but based on their subjective, personal beliefs and activist agendas,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement announcing the probe.
Harriet’s Wildest Dreams bills itself as “prison abolitionists” who work to “undermine” policing, prosecution or incarceration. The group says those are “structures” of “white supremacy, capitalism, xenophobia, ableism and heterosexism.”
Free DC works toward statehood for the District, as well as a full panoply of liberal and far-left causes.
It has been forthcoming in celebrating juries that have refused indictments or acquitted in cases brought by the U.S. attorney in Washington.
“Jury duty is not just a civic responsibility; it is a powerful tool for ensuring fairness and justice,” Free DC said in a social media post advertising its jury training sessions.
The Washington Times has sought comment from both groups.
Mr. Comer fired off demand letters Tuesday seeking the groups’ training session materials.
His investigation is based on articles in The Washington Free Beacon and The Washington Examiner, which reported earlier this year on the training sessions.
The Examiner reported on a July training session where the organizations strategized how to “influence outcomes to help create a more equitable legal process.”
And during an August session, a Harriet’s Wildest Dreams legal defense coordinator claimed one of their past trainees was on the jury for Mr. Dunn, the outlet reported.
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