Are the tables turning?
The writing on the wall?
The hunters becoming the hunted?
Many on social media think so, and the latest evidence is lead J6 D.C. prosecutor Matthew Graves announcing his resignation, effective just four days before President Trump takes office.
The hunters have now become the hunted
The J6 tables are about to be turned https://t.co/aXffYOnMow
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) December 30, 2024
HUGE: U.S. Attorney for D.C., Matt Graves, who led the prosecutions of January 6 participants, is resigning on January 16—just four days before Trump’s inauguration.
What do you think this means? pic.twitter.com/Ckpzh1DBiX
— Noah Christopher (@DailyNoahNews) December 30, 2024
Here is the official Press Release from Justice.gov (you might want to ignore all the self-aggrandizing statements):
WASHINGTON – Matthew M. Graves announced today that he is resigning as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, effective January 16, 2025, after serving in the role for more than three years.
ADVERTISEMENT“Serving as the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has been the honor of a lifetime,” said U.S. Attorney Graves. “I am deeply thankful to Congresswoman Holmes Norton for recommending me; to President Biden for nominating me; and to Attorney General Garland for placing his trust in me.”
Bridget M. Fitzpatrick, who has served as Principal Assistant United States Attorney—the highest-ranking career prosecutor in the Office—will become Acting U.S. Attorney when Mr. Graves leaves the Office. Ms. Fitzpatrick has over 15 years of federal law enforcement experience, including serving in the Principal Assistant role for three years. She has been intimately involved in all significant matters the Office has handled during her tenure, working closely with the Office’s law enforcement partners that have been critical to a wide range of successful prosecutions and violence prevention efforts over the past three years.
Mr. Graves was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 28, 2021, and was sworn in as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia on November 5, 2021. Mr. Graves first joined the Office as a career prosecutor in 2007, serving with distinction in both the Superior Court and Criminal Divisions of the Office, where he prosecuted a wide range of criminal matters, including violent crime, drug trafficking, illegal firearms possession, and fraud cases. In 2010, he was named a senior Assistant United States Attorney within the Office’s Fraud and Public Corruption Section—a Section he ultimately helped lead, first serving as an Acting Deputy Chief and eventually as the Acting Chief of the Section.
Mr. Graves led the Office in overcoming a series of unprecedented challenges, including addressing a nationwide rise in violent crime. As a result of the Office’s efforts and the efforts of others involved in administering the criminal justice system, the District of Columbia will have, in 2024, the least amount of total violent crime it has had in over 50 years.
While working to address the violent crime challenges that were plaguing the District when he joined the Office, Mr. Graves also led the largest investigation the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) has ever conducted to address the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021; oversaw the largest successful seizure in DOJ history, when law enforcement authorities recovered $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency from the hack of the Bitfinex global cryptocurrency exchange; and directed a number of other successful efforts, including prosecuting British American Tobacco and its subsidiary, resulting in $629 million in penalties and fines for illicit tobacco sales to North Korea; indicting members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with a hack-and-leak operation against the U.S. Presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump; and charging a murder-for-hire plot targeting, among others, former National Security Advisor John Bolton; the trial conviction of the individual who operated the longest-running bitcoin money laundering service on the darknet, which had laundered $400 million in cryptocurrency; and obtaining a roughly $377 million resolution against a government contractor, which is believed to be the largest procurement fraud settlement ever.
Targeting Violent Offenders and Reducing Gun and Drug-Related Violence
Under Mr. Graves’ leadership, the Office and its law enforcement partners have implemented and institutionalized processes for systematically reviewing relevant data to target violent offenders. This data driven approach focuses federal prosecutions on the relatively small group of people in our community who are the primary drivers of gun and drug-related violence. A key component of this approach was implementing in early 2022, a daily review of every gun arrest in the District of Columbia to determine which cases should be targeted for federal prosecution or prosecuted in D.C. Superior Court. This data-driven approach analyzes objective criteria about the offender and the recovered firearm, including the offender’s criminal record and intelligence collected about the person or the recovered firearm, to determine whether the person is a driver of gun violence and a heightened danger to the community.
The Office has also used data to proactively target areas in our city where the majority of gun and drug-related violence occurs and to systematically dismantle criminal networks. As a result of these efforts, we have prosecuted several large-scale, multi-defendant conspiracies, with ties to drug and gun violence to help make the communities in which they operated safer. Specifically, the Office has indicted violent street crews operating in and around MLK/Mellon, SE; Kennedy Street, NW; Greenleaf Gardens; Potomac Gardens; 7th & O, NW; Raum Street, NE; 21st and Maryland, NE; and 37th Place, SE. This data-driven approach has reduced the amount of violence these communities experienced.
The Office has also targeted those responsible for shipping large amounts of fentanyl into the District, holding accountable those responsible for fatal overdoses and supplying the drug markets that serve as a magnet for violence. As an example, the Office held not just the dealer who caused a tragic overdose accountable for the death, but brought charges against the broader network of which the dealer was a part, indicting nearly 30 co-conspirators, including local re-distributors, intermediaries in California, and sources of supply in Mexico.
At the same time, the Office continued to prosecute local violent crime aggressively in D.C. Superior Court. Under Mr. Graves’ leadership, the Office indicted more homicide cases each year during his tenure than it did in any year during the prior decade. The Office has also tried dozens of homicide cases to verdict during this period, obtaining justice for victims in a number of challenging cases. For example, during Mr. Graves’ tenure, the Office conducted two successful multi-month trials against members of a crew, who opened fire in a courtyard in 2018, discharging more than 50 rounds of ammunition and killing a ten-year-old girl; convicted two defendants who were sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for a nine-day shooting spree that culminated in the 2020 death of a thirteen-year-old boy walking to a basketball game; and convicted an individual who was sentenced to 68 years in prison after a jury found that he murdered his girlfriend and her mother in 2021, before shooting his girlfriend’s sister and trying to kill his own infant by setting the apartment on fire.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Office also continued its long-standing commitment to prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence, sexual abuse against children and adults, child exploitation and human trafficking. Throughout Mr. Graves’ tenure, the Office worked with its federal law enforcement partners to rescue more than 50 children who were being abused or sexually trafficked online. Additionally, the Office obtained convictions and significant sentences against numerous sexual predators for first degree sexual abuse, including convictions obtained at trial for kidnapping and raping a stranger at knifepoint; sexually abusing children who lived in the same home as the perpetrator; and in cold cases involving serial rapists, including two life sentences imposed for a man who raped strangers in their homes in 2007 and 2010. The Office also prosecuted several individuals who abused positions of trust, including obtaining a 30-year sentence against a government employee stationed in Mexico City who drugged and sexually abused dozens of women over 14 years.
These law enforcement efforts contributed to the 35% year-over-year decrease in total violent crime in 2024, the least amount of overall violent crime in the District in over half a century.
Addressing Challenges with the Criminal Justice Ecosystem
In November 2021, there was a backlog of more than a thousand felony cases that needed to be presented to a grand jury and hundreds of cases that needed to be tried as a result of the global pandemic, which was choking the criminal justice system’s pipeline. Moreover, the D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences (“DFS”) had lost its accreditation in spring 2021, so the Office lacked the DNA, fingerprint, firearms, and drug testing it needed to process and prove many of these cases. In addition to the pending case backlog and the forensic science issues, prosecutors faced a record number of motions filed by convicted defendants seeking early release from prison due to the COVID-19 pandemic or pursuant to changes in D.C. law that allowed many violent offenders to seek early release after serving 15 years.
Mr. Graves realigned resources within the Office and worked with the Court and other external stakeholders to re-stabilize the system and address these issues. As a result of these efforts, the backlog of felony cases pending before the grand jury was resolved by early 2023 for all cases; the backlog of pending trials for all misdemeanors and most felony cases was resolved by mid-2023; and, by late 2023, enough new experts had been identified and retained to handle the volume of forensic work historically performed by DFS. As a result of these efforts, the criminal justice system is in an even stronger position than it was before the pandemic, with a greater percentage of arrests resulting in conviction or some other type of just result, such as successfully completing a diversion program in Drug or Mental Health court.
Protecting National Security
Under Mr. Graves’ leadership, the Office has been at the forefront of our nation’s efforts to guard against illegal acts by malign foreign actors directed at the United States and to hold accountable those who target Americans when they are abroad. These prosecutions include charging: members of the IRGC with a hack-and-leak operation against the U.S. Presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump and, separately, a murder-for-hire plot targeting, among others, former National Security Advisor John Bolton; U.S. and foreign defendants with a wide-ranging scheme, targeting over 300 U.S. companies, orchestrated by North Korea to place overseas IT workers, posing as U.S. citizens, at U.S. companies; multiple individuals spying or acting illegally on behalf of foreign powers; the person who is alleged to have constructed the bomb that downed Pan Am Flight 103, killing 270 passengers, crew members, and residents of Lockerbie, Scotland; and Haitian gang leaders who are alleged to have kidnapped Americans and illegally smuggled U.S. weapons into Haiti.
The Office also brought a series of ground-breaking actions targeting those who sought to violate the sanctions and export control laws that protect our national security interests, including: seizures of hundreds of millions of dollars of illegally traffickedIranian oil; a criminal resolution with $629 million in penalties against a corporation involved in the illegal sale of tobacco by North Korea; the seizure of a super yacht owned by a sanctioned Russian oligarch; the forfeiture of a Boeing 747 that was owned by an airline affiliated with the IRGC; the first criminal resolution against a company for the illicit sale of Iranian oil; and the indictment of Chinese nationals for illegally exporting U.S.-origin electronic components to Iran and Iranian military affiliates.
ADVERTISEMENTDefending Democracy
On January 6, 2021, a violent mob of several thousand individuals stormed the Capitol and the United States briefly lost control of the grounds around the Capitol and much of the Capitol, itself. More than 140 law enforcement officers were injured during the siege of the Capitol, making it the largest single-day mass assault of law enforcement officers in our nation’s history. These events triggered the largest investigation in DOJ history. To date, roughly 1,600 people have been charged in connection with the attack with almost 1,100 having already been sentenced for their conduct. There have been over 170 contested trials with the United States prevailing in more than 99% of them. These convictions include the first seditious conspiracy convictions since the trials stemming from the first bombing of the World Trade Center in the 1990s. Because politically motivated violence and destruction rip at the fabric of our society, Mr. Graves made federally prosecuting such crimes a priority.
Under his leadership, the Office also federally prosecuted self-professed climate activists who targeted priceless artwork and an original copy of the Constitution, and has charged those who assaulted officers and destroyed federal property after attending a protest related to the conflict in Gaza. These prosecutions reflect the fact that people who engage in politically motivated violence and destruction will be prosecuted for their conduct, regardless of their political ideologies or beliefs.
Prosecuting Fraud, Public Corruption, and Civil Rights Violations
Under Mr. Graves’ leadership, the Office prosecuted a number of cybercrimes and crimes involving cryptocurrency, such as the successful prosecution of the individuals responsible for the Bitfinex hack, where the government was able to recover roughly $4 billion in cryptocurrency stolen in the hack—the largest cryptocurrency seizure to date; charging individuals with engaging in a conspiracy to steal and launder over $230 million in cryptocurrency; the trial conviction of the individual who had operated the longest-running bitcoin money laundering service on the darknet, which had laundered $400 million in cryptocurrency; charging an individual with the hack of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account that was subsequently used to spike the value of Bitcoin; and recovering millions taken from victims in crypto-confidence schemes.
Other fraud prosecutions that occurred under Mr. Graves’ leadership include frauds on both the government and private parties, including indicting a former defense contractor and his wife for evading taxes on over $350 million in income earned through contracting; prosecuting individuals who collectively attempted to steal tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds; convicting individuals who illegally traded on inside information; and convicting an individual who preyed upon thousands of distressed homeowners, bilking them of over $15 million while failing to provide any of the promised relief.
The public corruption prosecutions include numerous successful prosecutions of D.C. government employees and their co-conspirators for bribery; the first successful prosecutions of individuals for contempt of Congress in decades; and the prosecution of a former high-ranking FBI official for false statements he made in connection with payments he had received from individuals with ties to foreign governments.
The civil rights prosecutions include the first two convictions of Metropolitan Police Department officers for murders while on-duty; multiple prosecutions of officers for unlawfully assaulting and depriving their fellow citizens of their civil rights; and a ground-breaking prosecution of individuals who conspired to deprive people of access to lawful reproductive healthcare.
Protecting the Public Fisc
Caseloads in the Office’s Civil Division tripled from 2016 to 2020, as a result of an increase in lawsuits filed against the government during that period. Under Mr. Graves’ leadership, the Office’s Civil Division met this challenge and defended federal agencies in more than 7,000 lawsuits, remaining the Nation’s experts on civil actions brought by requesters for records under the Freedom of Information Act and by medical providers seeking to challenge Medicare reimbursement decisions. Resolving these suits in a just and equitable fashion protects the public fisc by ensuring that the United States expends funds in connection with these suits only when the facts and the law support that payment is warranted. In addition to these defensive cases, the Office also successfully litigated a number of cases it had affirmatively brought against entities and individuals who had fraudulently billed the government, including a roughly $377 million resolution against a government contractor, which is believed to be the largest purely-civil procurement fraud settlement ever, and multiple resolutions involving software providers for defective pricing and fraudulent overcharges, including a trial matter where the court ordered combined damages in excess of $50 million. The Office’s Civil Division also pursue actions against medical providers who fraudulently overcharged government healthcare programs and improper recipients of COVID-19 relief, who falsely certified their eligibility for that relief.
Providing Data Transparency
ADVERTISEMENTMr. Graves has led an unprecedented expansion of the data the Office releases about the important work it is doing to keep the community safe. In late 2022, Mr. Graves hired the Office’s first ever data scientist. Shortly after the data scientist onboarded in early 2023, Mr. Graves oversaw the launch of monthly Superior Court Reports that provide key prosecutorial metrics related to the Office’s prosecution activities in Superior Court. After launching these monthly reports, Mr. Graves negotiated an agreement with the D.C. Criminal Justice Coordinating Council where it shares data the Office provides on a quarterly basis related to prosecution metrics for those crimes that have the greatest impact on community safety, including violent crimes committed with firearms and illegal firearms possession. This effort provides unprecedented detail about the Office’s charging decisions for these offenses and how prosecutions for these offenses were resolved during the reporting period. Mr. Graves also ensured that the Office invested in new technology to make the Office’s data transparency more robust and efficient when the technology goes live later this year.
Despite that glowing autobiography, many on X are not impressed with his tenure, with some calling for the tables to be turned and for Graves to now be prosecuted:
BREAKING: Matthew Graves, the corrupt DOJ Attorney responsible for the persecution of President Trump's supporters, has resigned effective four days before Trump takes office.
Graves's work has led to many January 6 patriots ending their lives.
The story shouldn't be over,… pic.twitter.com/crGv0tqzet
— George (@BehizyTweets) December 30, 2024
Watch this disgusting clip where he describes how he will gladly go after even the non-violent people who never even entered the Capitol Building on J6:
Here is good little Marxist Matthew Graves telling American citizens they broke federal law by standing on grass outside a government building on a Wednesday afternoon and he can come get you if he wants pic.twitter.com/XZG6qVvR0S
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) December 30, 2024
That makes me want to vomit…..and it would make our Founding Fathers vomit too.
Not authorized to be there?
Not authorized to publicly gather (I do think the First Amendment calls that the Right to Free Assembly?) outside the People’s House?
How absolutely sick and twisted this government has become.
Some on X are going so far as to call his actions “crimes against humanity”:
https://x.com/MikeCrispi/status/1873814542104617118
And if you can stomach it, here is the 60 Minutes interview he did three months ago:
Here is a full bio for Graves:
Matthew Michael Graves is the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, a position he has held since being confirmed by the United States Senate on October 28, 2021, and sworn in on November 5, 2021. Here is a thorough overview of his career with a focus on his involvement in the January 6 (J6) cases:Early Life and Education
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!