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U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said Wednesday that “everything has changed” under the Trump administration, days after revealing findings from a federal review that she says uncovered widespread misclassification of crime reports that understated the true level of crime in Washington, D.C.
“When crime is under-reported, then police resources are not put in certain areas. As a result of that, people don’t think they’re being protected. They then don’t report crime,” Pirro told “America’s Newsroom” co-anchor Dana Perino.
“Now, everything has changed,” she continued.
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“In the period since we had the surge, homicides are down 65% compared to the year before. Carjackings are down 68%, and robberies are down 49%. We’re making a difference, but it is a focus on law and order, and it’s the federal partners coming in, and the people of the district deserve it.”
Pirro’s comments followed a months-long federal investigation which she said uncovered widespread misclassification of crime reports by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), making crime statistics across Washington, D.C., “artificially lower.”
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Pirro specified that the investigation involved 6,000 crime reports and interviews with more than 50 witnesses.
She also stated that the MPD’s alleged conduct does not rise to the level of a criminal charge, but that it is up to the department to “take steps to internally address these underlying issues.”
“I think that there certainly was an effort to misclassify, mischaracterize certain categories of crime. And it was an attempt to make crime look lower than it was…” she said.
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“But the bottom line here is this: now we’re in a situation with President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi where every case is being looked at, every case being reviewed by my office, so if it appears the arrest is lower than what the facts show, we’re going to upgrade that crime.”
MPD did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s prior request for comment on the matter.
Fox News’ Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.
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