Even as President Donald Trump and Republicans complain about the District of Columbia’s criminal justice system, critics argue that the Republican-led Congress may bear some of the blame for D.C.’s trouble, particularly since it holds enormous influence over everything from the city’s budget to whether it confirms its judges.
During his announcement Monday that he was taking over the Metropolitan Police Department and sending in the National Guard, Trump blamed the city’s “radical left” council and other leadership for his false claims of increased crime. “This dire public safety crisis stems directly from the abject failures of the city’s local leadership,” he said, citing the District’s policy of no-cash bail and its local juvenile offender laws.
But the D.C. Council, created through federal law, passes criminal statutes that can be overturned by Congress.
The local prosecutor is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Even the local judges have to go through Senate confirmation.
“There’s a weird degree of federal involvement in the day-to-day criminal justice apparatus of the District of Columbia,” said Ben Wittes, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and editor-in-chief of Lawfare.
Local leaders have criticized Trump’s takeover of the District’s police force, arguing it ignores policies that could actually reduce crime in the city.
D.C. Council Member Zachary Parker said Trump “has chosen politics over the interest of Washingtonians” and chose a political stunt over other steps like staffing the prosecutor’s office, filling judicial vacancies and disrupting the flow of guns into the District.
But Trump signaled Monday he wants Congress to become more involved in changing D.C.’s laws, including by revoking the District’s no-cash bail law and extending the 30-day period where he can control D.C. police. “We’re going to need a crime bill that we’re going to be putting in, and it’s going to pertain initially to D.C.,” he said.
Democrats say they’ll fight such moves.
“No f—ing way,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., told podcaster Aaron Parnas on Wednesday.
But Schumer himself has been involved in D.C. lawmaking. In 2023, with Schumer and then-President Joe Biden’s support, Congress passed a resolution to overrule a D.C. Council-passed overhaul of the District’s criminal code.
Budget cuts
More recently, Congress passed a continuing resolution which restricted the District from being able to use $1.1 billion in locally budgeted funds. Local leaders, along with Trump himself, called on Congress to pass a fix for the cut.
The Senate passed a bill to free up the funds in March, but it has so far not seen any action in the House. In June, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., demurred on whether the chamber would take up the budget fix.
“We’ve got a lot on our plate,” he told reporters.
Still, the House has passed several measures related to D.C. so far this year, including one that would prohibit noncitizens from voting in local elections and another that would change D.C. police discipline.
“If @SenateGOP cared about public safety in DC, they’d tell House Rs to pass our bill to restore the $1B they cut from DC’s budget & let DC hire more police officers. They don’t give a damn about people in DC. They’re just carrying water for their Dear Leader in the White House,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote on X.
Judicial vacancies
Aside from bigger-picture changes, Congress has a role in day-to-day administration of D.C.’s criminal justice system through its judges. Both the D.C. court system and the city’s elected council have asked the Senate to confirm more judges as vacancies have crept up.
In a letter last year, the D.C. court system said the delays are hurting efforts to prosecute crime in the district.
“Unfortunately, there has been an exponential increase in crimes in the District, in particular those involving juveniles with guns, coupled with recent and ongoing changes in the law requiring pre-trial detention for persons charged with certain crimes involving weapons,” the letter said.
Tracy Velazquez, policy director for the D.C.-focused Council for Court Excellence, said that judicial vacancies have crept up for years, before reaching the current high of 13 on the 61-judge trial court and two on the 11-judge appellate court.
Velazquez said the vacancies have meant that cases take longer to process. Felony cases took an average of 435 days in 2019, and crept up to an average of 655 days in 2023, she said. Those were for the most serious cases, and also come with speedy-trial requirements that mean they go to the front of the line, so all cases would be taking longer, she said.
That puts strain on all aspects of the system, from victims to witnesses and defendants themselves who had the cases drag on, Velazquez said. The delays also put more pressure on the city’s jail, which Velazquez said has overcrowding and staffing issues making it unsafe.
Ten D.C. judge nominations expired at the end of last year after Van Hollen attempted to pass them through unanimous consent but faced Republican objections.
So far this year Trump has nominated only one judge to the District’s vacancies. That means about one of five judicial seats in the District are currently vacant and months away from being filled.
During a press conference Wednesday, Jeanine Pirro, the District’s U.S. attorney, acknowledged the problems with approving judicial nominees. She said the Trump administration would send nominees for open seats to the Senate “very soon.”
She blamed local laws for how she has to charge juvenile offenders, arguing the probation that many young defendants receive doesn’t discourage crime.
“It’s individuals who are not concerned about accountability, who don’t have any reason to fear law enforcement,” Pirro said.
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