Arlington County’s top prosecutor was questioned in a closed-door deposition with the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday about policies congressional Republicans said contradicted President Donald Trump’s administration.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, a Democrat, complied with a subpoena after a war of words and accusations from Chairman Jim Jordan.
Dehghani-Tafti emerged from the deposition after about 4 and a half hours saying she was instructed by the committee not to discuss any of the proceedings.
In May, Jordan sent Dehghani-Tafti a letter saying she “appear[s] to have weaponized your office to give preferential treatment to aliens based solely on their immigration status.”
While Arlington’s prosecutor made no comment after the hearing, she did share her opening statement with News4, in which she directly addressed that claim, saying every defendant is treated the same – regardless of their immigration status.
Norfolk’s commonwealth’s attorney was here in support of his colleague from Arlington.
“She is here because of politics, because the House Republicans want to continue false narratives about crime, and they’re doing it behind closed doors because they don’t have the courage to do it in an open hearing,” Ramin Fatehi said.
Dozens of Arlingtonians staged a demonstration in the hallway, demanding transparency.
“We in Arlington are outraged about how our commonwealth’s attorney is being treated,” Julie Hanson Swanson of We of Action Virginia said.
Jordan has been critical of an alleged misdemeanor case involving the White House chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller. Local activists spread flyers that shared Miller’s Arlington County home address. But after an investigation, Dehghani-Tafti found the activists hadn’t broken any laws, and the case was dropped, which didn’t sit well with the president’s loyalists on Capitol Hill.
Protesters pushed back against Jordan for choosing to focus the committee’s time and energy on a local prosecutor.
“Why isn’t he demanding answers from the agencies that he’s responsible for?” Rep. Don Beyer (D-Arlington) asked.
Beyer said the deposition was meant to send a politically charged message to local Democrats.
“He’s trying to set an example and basically warn elected officials that if they refuse to fall in line with the MAGA agenda that Congress is gonna come after them,” he said.
In May, the same committee held a hearing with Fairfax County’s prosecutor and sheriff about immigration policies. In June, another House committee called Loudoun County’s school superintendent to testify about transgender students.
None of the committee members made themselves available to speak after the deposition.
News4 sends breaking news stories by email. Go here to sign up to get breaking news alerts in your inbox.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/Jfw3Tat
0 Comments