01-05-2025
If Trump Wants To Back Blue, Start With These Unjust Prosecutions
If President Trump wants to implement the pro-police policies he outlined in his April 29 Executive Order, a good start would be dropping two unjust (but ongoing) federal prosecutions of police.
The two flimsy and politically motivated cases - in Kentucky and Massachusetts - are left over from the Biden Justice Departments war on cops. Trump can make good on his law enforcement-first approach by putting an end to these egregious charges brought by Biden officials (including a now-disgraced Soros DA) and career bureaucrats.
Trumps EO, "Strengthening and Unleashing Americas Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens," lays out the White Houses refreshingly pro-law enforcement approach. In addition to directing more federal resources to local law enforcement, it orders the Justice Department to provide much-needed legal resources to aid the defense of wrongfully accused cops.
The executive order builds on concrete actions the administration has already taken in pausing burdensome consent decrees and pardoning unjustly prosecuted police officers like D.C. Police Officer Terence Sutton.
But Trump doesnt have to pardon these officers if he keeps his own Justice Department from repeating the same injustices inflicted on Sutton. Like in that case, politics is driving these prosecutions - facts be damned. And worse, these interim U.S. attorneys (who hold office until Trumps picks are confirmed) are doing it all under the noses of a pro-police president and attorney general.
In Massachusetts, a police sergeant with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police, which patrols Bostons subway system, faces federal charges for filing a false report - a rarely charged offense - related to a subordinates minor use of force on a homeless man in 2018. Sgt. David Finnerty, who as shift supervisor was not present and did not participate in the incident, could get 20 years in prison for allegedly lying on the report.
State charges were originally brought in 2019 by Bostons Soros-backed local prosecutor, Rachael Rollins, who had unilaterally decriminalized most public order offenses. After Rollins charged Finnerty and another officer, she got Bidens nod to be Bostons chief federal prosecutor in 2021. The next year, Rollins successor as district attorney dropped the case after uncovering computer evidence that Finnerty had not made the false report edits.
But Rollins, who has a long history of anti-police animus, wasnt finished. The Soros-funded DA went after Finnerty again for the same offense in federal court, despite the new exculpatory evidence. But Finnertys pursuer resigned in disgrace in 2023 after being found to have engaged in influence-peddling, corruption, and - yes - perjury.
Yet, Rollins case against Sgt. Finnerty remains, more than three months after Trump took office. Career lawyers at the Justice Department plan to try the zombie case in the coming weeks.
In another egregious example of anti-police prosecutions, three Kentucky State Troopers face decades in federal prison over force incidents. The indictment was sought by Michael A. Bennett, the U.S. attorney who took office under Biden. Shockingly, the charges were brought in March 2025 - under the Trump administration - since Bennett remains in charge.
Notably, Bennetts office also led the questionable investigation into the Louisville Police Department, alleging systemic police abuses to justify federal meddling. Thankfully, a federal judge and the Trump Administration kiboshedthat effort.
The federal case largely stems from two incidents in the spring of 2020. During an April arrest for a domestic violence bench warrant, the troopers James Wright and Thomas Czartorski struck the wanted man and took him to the ground. Czartorski, who struck the suspect on the leg with a flashlight, lost his job and later pleaded guilty to perjury for denying, in a civil suit deposition, that he struck the man.
Wright, who was cleared in an internal affairs investigation and local prosecutors declined to charge, now faces 25 years in federal prison. Lewis is accused of tasing a suspected drunk driver, but was also cleared by police investigators and never charged at the state level. After the federal indictment, the decorated officers (Wright was nominated for Trooper of the Year) were immediately suspended.
In the four officers cases, local officials already imposed consequences (Czartorski) for misconduct or found no basis for prosecution, yet in the wake of the 2020 anti-police unrest, the Biden Justice Department persisted.
The Trump DOJ should not be carrying out an unethical Soros prosecutors vendetta in Boston, nor should it allow Biden holdovers to go after cops in Kentucky unjustly.
Just like it did with unnecessary police consent decrees, Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi should put an end to these egregious political prosecutions of police in Kentucky and Massachusetts.
Jason Johnson is the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, which advocates for pro-police policies and provides legal aid to wrongfully accused officers. Johnson is the former deputy commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department.
