• Attorney general reverses Obamaera prosecution policies.
Prosecutors told to file stiffest charges
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is telling the nation’s federal prosecutors to file the stiffest charges they can prove in every criminal case — a signal that the U.S. federal prison population, which declined under former President Barack Obama, is likely to rise again.
“Any inconsistent previous policy … is rescinded, effective today,” Mr. Sessions said in a memo Thursday night to the nation' s 94 U.S. attorneys’ offices.
In particular, he said, the administration of President Donald Trump is discarding Obama administration policies that directed prosecutors to refrain from filing charges that carry mandatory minimum sentences — prison terms the judge must impose after a conviction — for crimes such as nonviolent drug offenses.
Those polices, along with rules changes by the U.S. Sentencing Commission and an easing of some drug laws by Congress, reduced the federal prison population from about 220,000 to 190,000, the first decline in three decades.
Any reversal in federal prosecution and sentencing policy won’t affect state governments.
Margaret Philbin, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said acting U.S. Attorney Soo Song and the division chiefs in her office were reviewing the memo.
“It is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense,” the charge that carries “the most substantial [federal] guidelines sentence, including mandatory minimum sentences,” wrote Mr. Sessions, aformer prosecutor.
While asserting that “drugs and crime go hand in hand,” he told the police group that he is giving prosecutors “discretion to avoid sentences that would result in an injustice” and that they would not be “micro-managed from Washington.”
Mr. Sessions is sending a message that “we’re going to be the tougher, harsher Justice Department on drug crimes,” but “there’s a big question mark on what the practical impact will be,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a former federal prosecutor.
She noted that Mr. Sessions’ memo did not spell out the “injustice” exceptions to seeking maximum sentences, or say how the government would pay for expanded prosecutions and imprisonment.
Stanford law professor Robert Weisberg, co-director of the school’s Criminal Justice Center, said the U.S. attorneys chosen by Mr. Trump would probably encounter “a lot of initial resistance” from their staff attorneys for drastic policy changes ordered from Washington, leading to considerable staff turnover.