A jury in Washington DC needed only 35 minutes to deliver a swift not guilty verdict for a man accused of aiming a laser pointer at the presidential helicopter carrying Donald Trump.
A Swift Acquittal and a High-Profile Defeat
The case against 33-year-old Jacob Winkler concluded on Tuesday with a remarkably fast acquittal. Winkler had faced a felony charge of aiming a laser at an aircraft, which carries a potential prison sentence of up to five years. The charge stemmed from a September incident where a US Secret Service agent alleged he saw Winkler point a red laser beam at Marine One shortly after it departed the White House.
The verdict represents a significant and embarrassing loss for the office of Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host appointed by Trump as the US Attorney for Washington DC. Pirro had vowed to prosecute Winkler "to the fullest extent of the law." Her office has aggressively pursued cases against individuals accused of threatening the president or attacking federal officers, but has now suffered multiple notable failures in court.
Defence Decries 'Policing Poverty'
Winkler's public defenders, Alexis Gardner and Ubong Akpan, issued a statement following the acquittal that sharply criticised the prosecution's priorities. They revealed that the laser device in question was a cat toy keychain, and described their client as a homeless man.
"In the most powerful city in the world," the statement said, "the federal government spent scarce resources to make a felon out of a homeless man with nothing but a cat toy keychain. Every hour spent on this case was an hour not spent addressing real threats to our community. We need to stop policing poverty and start investing in dignity."
A Pattern of Setbacks for the Prosecution
The outcome in Winkler's trial echoes another recent defeat for Pirro's office. Prosecutors failed to secure a conviction against Sean Charles Dunn, a former US Justice Department paralegal, who was charged with assault for throwing a sandwich at a federal agent in August.
That incident occurred during a period of heightened tension in the capital. After Trump declared a crime emergency last summer and deployed troops, federal agents from the DHS and FBI conducted patrols. Pirro's office subsequently filed numerous cases against local residents for alleged assaults on federal officers or threats against the president, with mixed success.
The US Attorney's office did not immediately comment on the Winkler verdict. Notably, during the business week of the trial, the office issued at least 16 news releases, but none addressed this high-profile case.
