Grand juries in America, operating under rules heavily titled toward prosecutors, tend to acquiesce to just about all requests for indictments. Thus, it is quipped on occasion that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. Grand juries have largely failed to live up to their promise as a check on the exercise of government power.
This week, though, the Donald Trump administration found that there is a limit to what a grand jury will do at the request of prosecutors. As reported by Ryan J. Reilly, Gary Grumbach, and Michael Kosnar at NBC News, a grand jury on Tuesday refused the request by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for an indictment of six United States Congress members because they had, in a video, urged US military and intelligence employees to refuse to carry out illegal orders.
That it is against the law in America to tell people they should refuse to take part in breaking the law is about as flagrantly dumb of argument as can be offered in judicial process. Fortunately, the grand jury members stood up to the prosecutors and said “no” to the indictment request.
