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New York’s top elected attorneys were like deer in headlights when pressed about a congressional investigation claiming they’d directed staff to downgrade illegal immigrants’ charges to avoid deportation.
The attorneys — state AG Letitia James, and city District Attorneys Melinda Katz and Eric Gonzalez — stared blank-faced when asked by The Post about the damning report at a Thursday gun-safety press conference.
“Did any of you order prosecutors to downgrade gun charges to keep illegal immigrants in the US, per the Judiciary Committee report the recent house judiciary report?” a reporter asked, explaining the report could clearly indicate a gun-safety issue.
But the attorneys merely smiled and blinked — with Katz even throwing her hands up in a shrug.
“This is a gun-safety question,” The Post followed up. “Any response from any of you?”
“Our answer couldn’t help it,” Katz eventually muttered, before somebody asked for “any other on-topic questions” and hustled the presser along.
The attorneys refused to speak on the House investigation again after their news conference — with James smiling without a word at the question and Katz deferring to her spokesperson.
The awkward dodges went down just days after The Post revealed a House Judiciary Committee report claiming elected Democratic DAs in the Big Apple directed staff to downgrade sometimes alarming charges in an outright effort to keep illegal immigrants from being deported.
Katz, for example, reportedly directed her prosecutors to “exercise extreme caution” when dealing with charges against illegal immigrants, advising her staff to “not get caught up in the label of [f]elonies, [m]isdemeanors,” the GOP-led investigation cited from her office communications.
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Even child sex crimes were to be treated with white gloves — with the Judiciary Committee accusing Bronx DA Darcel Clark of ordering her staff to follow “immigration-conscious plea bargaining” and “[o]ffer something that does not have the child’s age as an element of the crime.”
A spokesperson for Katz later reached out to The Post and said leniency was never shown to “any defendant” charged with gun crimes.
“We charge any defendant with an illegal firearm with the highest possible charge under the law,” the spokesperson said.
