Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has introduced articles of impeachment against U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who runs the federal prosecutor’s office in Washington, D.C., and has helped handle prosecutions of participants in the Capitol violence seen in early 2021.
Greene’s proposed articles of impeachment against that prosecutorial authority have fewer cosponsors than a recent proposal to which she also affixed her name that would rename a post office in Mount Vernon, Georgia. The impeachment push against Graves has five sponsors/cosponsors, including Greene. H.R. 3944, the one that deals with renaming that post office, has 14 sponsors/cosponsors.
Greene’s push to impeach Graves makes, as could be expected, flatly misleading accusations, including in a description of the Capitol riot participants whose prosecutions have involved Graves’s work. “Instead of preventing [or] prosecuting these crimes, Graves’s office has hired more attorneys solely to prosecute more than 1,000 individuals who have been arrested for political protest or touring the U.S. Capitol,” Greene alleged.
The idea that those who have been criminally charged for participating in what happened on January 6 were just “touring” the Capitol or conducting political protest is a laughably absurd notion on par with saying Joe Biden is an alien. We all saw what happened, Marjorie. Furious supporters of the now former president tried to help secure another four years in office for him by violent force, including beating police with whatever they could find and trying to hunt down political leaders standing in the way like Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence, both of whom they might have killed.
Greene also made more general claims about crime in Washington, D.C., trying to tie Graves to ostensible rises in serious crime through means including the rate at which he has declined to bring prosecutions after arrests. A certain rate of stepping away from the prospect of prosecution means really nothing substantial on its face. There’s no inherent proof that these people did really meet the threshold for prosecution en masse or that they’ve even gone out and committed further criminal acts. Criminal justice reform doesn’t equal supporting criminals.
