RUSH TO JUDGMENT
Race to indict Garner cop before Trump takes office
Feds are pushing a Brooklyn grand jury to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo (above left) in the death of Eric Garner and force the case on Donald Trump’s administration.
The Obama administration is scrambling to secure an indictment in the racially charged NYPD killing of Eric Garner before President-elect Donald Trump takes office Friday and potentially scraps the case, sources told The Post.
Federal prosecutors from Washington, DC, called cops in front of a Brooklyn grand jury Wednesday, and more witnesses are expected to testify Thursday, the sources said.
The panel will be asked to consider civil-rights charges against white NYPD cop Daniel Pantaleo before the end of the day, the sources said.
Pantaleo was caught on camera subduing Garner, who was black, during an arrest for illegally selling cigarettes on Staten Island on July 17, 2014.
The Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Garner’s death a homicide, caused in part by a chokehold, which is banned by the NYPD.
Garner’s dying words — “I can’t breathe!” became a rallying cry of the Black Lives Matter movement.
A Staten Island state grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo in August 2014, leading then-US Attorney General Eric Holder to announce “a complete review of the material gathered during the local investigation” the following December.
A federal grand jury in Brooklyn heard testimony from NYPD cops in February 2016 but never handed up an indictment amid a clash between feds working in New York and civil-rights prosecutors from “Main Justice” in Washington.
Local prosecutors and FBI agents opposed filing charges on the grounds that cellphone video supported Pantaleo’s claim that he didn’t mean to put Garner in a chokehold, leading to a “highly unusual shakeup” in which they were bounced from the case, The New York Times reported in October.
It’s unclear if the grand jury currently hearing evidence in Brooklyn is composed of the same panelists from last year.
Last week, seven New York members of Congress urged US Attorney General Loretta Lynch — who headed the Garner probe while she was the US attorney in Brooklyn — to bring charges be- fore leaving office at noon Friday.
In a letter, the lawmakers — all Democrats — warned that the Trump administration will “be less committed to civil-rights enforcement,” adding that “the investigation into Mr. Garner’s death may itself be suffocated and die.”
During the presidential campaign, Trump called himself “the law-and-order candidate,” and his nominee for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), ripped the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during a 2015 Senate hearing called “The War on Police: How the Federal Government Undermines State and Local Law Enforcement.”
A lawyer for Garner’s family, which scored a $5.9 million settlement from the city and another $1 million from Richmond University Medical Center, where Garner was rushed for treatment, said he was told earlier Wednesday that Trump’s inauguration would not affect the case.
“In my most recent conversation with the Justice Department, they indicated there’s an active and ongoing investigation and that it will continue past the change of the administration,” said the attorney, Jonathan Moore.
In 2015, a state judge ordered the Civilian Complaint Review Board to release any substantiated misconduct allegations against Pantaleo, but the city is appealing that ruling.
Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, told The Post she’s been “really hoping that we will get some type of justice and accountability, even if it’s on the last day.”
“But if it doesn’t, I was still going to remain hopeful it could happen under a Trump administration, because everyone’s seen the injustice done to my son,” she added.
City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-SI) said the sudden revival of the grand-jury probe reeked of political interference.
“The effort to move on this case two days before Donald Trump assumes the presidency shows that politics has been a factor the whole time,” Borelli said.
Sergeants Benevolent Association President Ed Mullins added, “Attorney General Lynch has made a complete mockery of the Justice Department.”