'Empty threat': Ex-prosecutor reveals why Trump has no power to follow through on new push

28 August

U.S. President Donald Trump attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

During a White House Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, August 26, President Donald Trump vowed to use the federal courts to ramp up the death penalty in Washington, D.C.

Trump told Cabinet members, "If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we're going to be seeking the death penalty. And that's a very strong preventative…. It's such a beautiful place, but if you have crime, nothing looks beautiful.'"

In an August 28 article published by the conservative website The Bulwark, however, Kimberly Wehle — a University of Baltimore law professor and former federal prosecutor — emphasizes that the type of local homicides Trump was referring to are not a matter for federal law.

Wehle explains, "Donald Trump lodged another menacing threat on Tuesday in his escalation of the federal law enforcement presence in Washington, D.C.: more federal executions…. But even a quick perusal of the law makes clear that Trump's talk of the 'death penalty' is an empty threat intended, like so much of his rhetoric and policies, to incite fear. Even King Trump lacks the power to start executing people for local homicides in Washington, D.C."

The former DOJ prosecutor notes that although the District of Columbia "is not a state," the "D.C. Council passes its own laws governing local crime, including homicide."

"In 1983, the D.C. Council repealed capital punishment for crimes committed under D.C.'s local criminal code," Wehle observes. "D.C. does not have a local prosecutor, so all criminal cases are instead brought by the U.S. attorney for the District — currently the former Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro — who must bring local charges under D.C.'s criminal code, which makes no provision for capital punishment."

Wehle continues, "In theory, and provided a case presented the right facts, Pirro could also bring charges for capital offenses occurring in D.C. under the federal criminal code, which Congress substantially amended with the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 to list approximately 60 federal crimes that carry a possible death sentence. But that list does not include regular homicide in the District of Columbia."

Wehle describes the types of homicides that would and wouldn't be prosecuted by DOJ in federal courts.

"Bear in mind that, in general, federal — meaning nationwide — laws enacted by Congress must have something about them that transcends local matters that impact only the individual states. Murders of diplomats, or at international airports, or on the high seas, or in connection with interstate drug trafficking, or at a federal facility would all qualify for a possible death sentence under federal law. But local crimes in a big city that happens to also be the capital of the nation do not."

Wehle adds, "Just like the long line of earlier U.S. attorneys for D.C. under both Republican and Democratic presidents, Pirro would have to charge a homicide under one of these offenses, with Attorney General Pam Bondi's approval, to carry out Trump's death-penalty threat. D.C. is home to a lot of federal facilities — building, parks, museums, monuments, etc. But that’s not where the city’s murders tend to happen."

Kimberly Wehle's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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