California National Guard troops during protests in Downtown Los Angeles on June 10, 2025 (U.S. Northern Command/Wikimedia Commons)
The attorney general might be out, but the Department of Justice problems persist.
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that every case federal prosecutors in L.A. have pursued against protesters they allege "assaulted federal officers" have been dropped.
Even a federal judge is calling the U.S. attorney's office "amateur hour" after losing one assault trial. They have charged more than 100 protesters since June 2025, claiming assault or "interference with immigration enforcement."
U.S. District Judge André Birotte presided over a case in which federal prosecutors failed to disclose additional discovery to the defense.
“A mistake was made,” claimed Asst. U.S. Atty. William Kanellis, placing the blame on the previous U.S. attorney.
“I’ve got 12 people here, are you going to tell them to come back in a month?” Birotte said.
“I don’t think it’s going to take a month,” Kanellis responded, according to the Times.
“How do you know how much time they need to prepare?” Birotte snapped, asking if Kanellis had ever worked as a defense attorney.
The court-appointed attorney said that the new evidence did impact the case for defendants Erin Petra Escobar and Nick Gutierrez.
“You’ve got to be ready for prime time and you’re not,” said Birotte, a former assistant U.S. attorney.
“This trial is probably not going to happen,” he added at one point.
The following day, Judge Birotte admonished, “The government has tried numerous cases like this, I’m just surprised that there wouldn’t be a check to see ‘Has everything been turned over?' The notion that they inadvertently failed to add reports to this case is just not compelling to this court. This is something that should have been looked at and it wasn’t.”
“The court’s left with this dilemma that I have not faced in my entire time on the bench, and I don’t take it lightly,” Birotte said.
The case was officially dismissed "with prejudice," which means it can't be brought again, said the Times.
In another case, Luis Hipolito was accused of punching an officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the face. He didn't deny it, but he was still acquitted despite videos showing the incident. According to Hipolito, the officers never identified themselves, and he was scared they were trying to kidnap a woman who was screaming, “I’m a U.S. citizen."
At first, he thought she was a teenager because she was so small. So he intervened. When they pepper-sprayed and elbowed him in the face, he said he fought back as a simple reaction to the violence.
“I didn’t see where I landed the punch, I just took a swing,” he said. “I just wanted to defend myself.”
The videos show that the men jumped on Hipolito, one putting his arm around Hipolito's neck. "Soon after, Hipolito’s legs shuddered and buckled and his body began to shake violently," the report described.
Asst. U.S. Atty. Jason Pang told the jury that Hipolito was lying and that the vest the men were wearing said "POLICE" on them. But Hipolito said anyone could buy a vest like that. The jury acquitted him.
Attorney Ricardo A. Nicol told the L.A. Times, “You would think that, at some point, they might start to realize that history and the public are not on their side, that the will of the people is not on their side. But they’re so determined to get convictions on these cases, they don’t stop.”
“The government and the people they’re supposed to be representing are not in sync right now, obviously,” he said.