Grand jury refuses to indict second person accused of threatening President Trump

Prosecutors from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office informed a magistrate judge of the no true bill on Tuesday.

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https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/crime/grand-jury-refuses-to-indict-a-second-person-accused-of-threatening-president-trump-edward-dana/65-35ca0c41-ee10-4aa8-94fa-69241bbf588e

WASHINGTON — For a second time this week, a federal grand jury declined to indict a defendant accused of threatening to kill President Donald Trump.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro's office informed a magistrate judge Tuesday afternoon that a grand jury had refused charges against Edward Alexander Dana. Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey denied a request from prosecutors not to disclose that information to Dana’s attorney.

Dana, who described himself to police as a "person with disabilities," was charged last month with threatening to kill Trump while he was being arrested on suspicion of damaging an exterior light at a restaurant in Northwest D.C. According to charging documents, Dana told police he was intoxicated at the time and claimed to be a descendant of the Huguenots – a group of French Protestants who mounted a series of rebellions against the crown in the 17th Century.

Dana’s case marks at least the seventh time since Trump’s federal surge began in D.C. that a grand jury has declined to support charges field by Pirro’s office. It’s also the second time prosecutors have failed to secure charges against a defendant accused of threatening Trump. Earlier Tuesday, WUSA9 reported a grand jury had refused to indict another defendant, Nathalie Rose Jones, of New York, for allegedly threatening Trump.

Grand juries nearly always return indictments in federal cases because they are tasked with deciding only whether there is a reasonable basis to support charging a crime, a much lower burden than in criminal trials, and because they typically made their decisions after hearing evidence only from the government. Dana’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Elizabeth Mullin, said in her more than 20-year career as a defense attorney she had never seen a similar spree of refusals to indict.