DOJ attorney who led prosecution of anti-Trump protesters hit with ethics charges

WASHINGTON — A Justice Department attorney who led the attempted prosecution of hundreds of anti-Trump and anti-fascist protesters swept up in a mass arrest on the day of former President Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration is facing rare ethics charges, with the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel alleging she hid exculpatory evidence from the defendants, edited videos to omit crucial context and then lied in court about her actions.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff Muyskens, who went by Jennifer Kerkhoff at the time of the alleged misconduct, was the lead prosecutor on the more than 230 cases that arose out of the mass arrests of protesters near Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017. Protesters were arrested after police trapped them in a "kettle" after some individuals smashed windows, destroyed a limousine and threw objects at officers during a demonstration against the then-incoming president.

The government adopted the extraordinary tactic of charging hundreds of people arrested on a public street with felony crimes based on the theory that their choice of black clothing meant they were part of a felony rioting conspiracy. But the #J20 prosecutions, as activists dubbed them, were largely a bust for the government. Jurors acquitted the first six defendants to go to trial in late 2017; a judge ordered charges against 10 other defendants dropped because prosecutors withheld evidence; and charges were dropped against all remaining defendants in mid-2018.

Kerkhoff Muyskens and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Detective Greggory Pemberton were "primarily responsible for the government’s investigation" into the events of Jan. 20, 2017, according to the ethics complaint against Kerkhoff Muyskens that alleges she