'Never Should Have Gotten This Far': Trump DOJ Moves to Drop Case Against Union Leader David Huerta

The US Department of Justice on Monday moved to drop its criminal case against California labor leader David Huerta, who was charged with conspiring to impede an officer after being arrested last year while protesting federal immigration enforcement operations.

In a two-page filing, the DOJ said it was moving to dismiss charges against Huerta, president of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West.

As noted by a Monday Politico report, the DOJ had originally hit Huerta with a felony obstruction count, then downgraded it to a misdemeanor, before moving to drop the case altogether.

Heurta's arrest caused an outcry last year, as video footage taken from the protest showed a masked law enforcement officer shoving the labor leader to the ground during a demonstration against a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in Los Angeles.

In a statement released after the government's motion to dismiss the case, Huerta said that the Trump DOJ "is finally admitting what we knew from day one and what was obvious to anyone who saw the videos: the charge against me was baseless, meant to intimidate anyone who dares to speak out, organize, or demand justice."

Attorneys Abbe Lowell and Marilyn Bednarski, who are representing Huerta, delivered a scathing assessment of the DOJ's conduct.

"This case, like others, sought to silence criticism of the administration's improper immigration actions," the attorneys said. "Today's filing is proof that David and other critics will not be silenced."

Lowell and Bednarski added that, even though their client is no longer facing criminal charges, the choice to pursue prosecution in the first place inflicted significant costs upon him.

"This case revealed that the Department of Justice was willing to charge a labor leader, hold it over him for months, and then walk away from it once the charge couldn't survive scrutiny," they said. "That is not how a justice system is supposed to work."

The California Federation of Labor Unions expressed a similar sentiment, arguing that the decision to charge Huerta showed the DOJ has gone off the rails.

"Today, justice prevailed," the federation said. "But it never should have gotten this far. The arrest of our union brother David Huerta was an assault on the entire labor movement by the Trump administration. The decision to drop these outrageous charges reflects the power of working people standing together."

Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, told The Los Angeles Times on Monday that she wasn't surprised to see the government move to dismiss charges against Huerta because there were "problems with this case from day one."

“When you look at the photos and videos, there’s certainly an argument from the defense that it was law enforcement acting in a defensive manner and he was just protesting," Levenson said. "It would have been a tough case for the prosecution to win if this went to trial."