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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   13114 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 20, 2026

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Your argument proves too much: the Trump administration also had difficulty securing a grand jury in cases where they had video evidence of the crime.

Which case was this? The first thing that came to my mind was a vague recollection of the recent reported paper-bag-of-bribery-sting-cash video, but the suspect there (despite being first appointed to ICE by Obama) was considered "one of the president's top allies" and it was the Trump DoJ that dropped the case.

There was the sandwich guy in DC who threw his food at federal officers and was a found innocent of all charges, and within DC is now regarded as a local folk hero for standing up to the federal government or whatever.

That was kind of doomed from the start with a DC jury. In this case they were able to file in Alabama, which should have a more level playing field.

The outsized sway of DC and NY juries on federal law enforcement has seemed like a viable opportunity for reform, but I haven't seen any political operatives (conservative, presumably) actually talking about it.

Juries drawn from the district the crime was allegedly committed in is in the Constitution, so de facto not reformable.

Sure, but plenty of crimes with ambiguous jurisdiction, especially international ones, are consistently tried in NY or DC. What did Maduro do in New York, specifically, that justifies a New York jury deciding his fate? Plenty of SDNY press releases include "across the United States".

The Maduro indictment is unusual in that all the counts are extra-territorial, so jurisdiction only ends up in SDNY because that is where they landed him after arresting him overseas. Normally this kind of complex international drug smuggling case ends up in SDNY because the money was laundered through NYC-based banks, making SDNY the easiest jurisdiction to throw in money laundering charges.

But they could have indicted Maduro anywhere - I guess they went with the SDNY because that is where the career AUSAs and judges with the relevant experience are.

It's not that unusual: Assange was charged in the Eastern District of Virginia, despite never having touched US soil. Kim Dotcom never did either, and was also charged in Virginia. I don't think this is a particularly uncommon fact pattern, and also shows up in enforcing international sanctions regimes.

And even when the fact pattern supports a locus within a specific district, I think there are very real questions about whether Virginians, and New Yorkers are uniquely qualified to decide "[defrauding/attempting to overthrow/saying mean words about] the Federal government" sorts of cases even if the office in question physically sits there.

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