A federal judge ruled Thursday that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro may present charges rejected by federal grand juries to a D.C. Superior Court grand jury, relying on a rarely used D.C. Code provision that lets either federal or local grand juries return indictments on federal crimes.
Chief Judge James Boasberg said the authority covers “any criminal matter,” including capital offenses, treason, racketeering conspiracy, and sedition, examples he noted to illustrate the provision’s reach.
Boasberg upheld Pirro’s decision to seek a Superior Court indictment against Kevontae Stewart after a federal grand jury declined to charge him with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Stewart, 28, was arrested in September after officers and federal agents said he fled from an idling Jeep and threw a handgun across the street; he previously had a felony burglary conviction in Maryland.
Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui had refused to accept the federal indictment after the federal grand jury rejected the charge, calling the two-track process “unseemly” and likely unlawful. Pirro pushed back, saying neither Faruqui nor Boasberg should be surprised given a similar 2020 case they both oversaw, and argued the challenge created unnecessary delays.
Boasberg described the practice as “exceedingly rare” and said he had “never heard of it” before this case. He cautioned that the authority theoretically allows prosecutors to bypass federal grand juries altogether, but said that if the system invites abuse, “the remedy would lie with Congress, not this Court.”
