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House Republicans are poised on Thursday to yet again examine the state of crime in the nation’s capital, continuing a months-long effort to hammer the District as ravaged by violence and local Democratic leadership as unequipped to address it.

The hearing, before a House Judiciary subcommittee, is part of a continuing effort by GOP members to use crime in some Democratic-led cities across the country to their political benefit — portraying their party, and its more punitive policies, as the solution.

The issue is particularly resonant in the District. The Thursday hearing comes as D.C. is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/09/26/dc-homicides-increase-crime-crisis/" target=_blank>experiencing a pace of homicides</a> not seen since the late 1990s, when the city faced widespread social dysfunction, mismanagement and rampant, crack-fueled street killings. This year, members of Congress and their staff have fallen victim to violent crimes themselves — including a Democratic representative from Texas <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/10/02/congressman-henry-cuellar-carjacked-southeast-dc/" target=_blank>who was carjacked this month</a> about a mile from the U.S. Capitol, illustrating how the political has become personal for some federal lawmakers.

D.C. surpasses 200 homicides for the year at earliest point since 1997

Thursday’s hearing is expected to target the “rise of violent crime” in D.C. as well as what the committee describes as a “lack of prosecutorial accountability.” The deputy mayor for public safety and justice, Lindsey Appiah, is expected to testify, invited by Democrats. Republicans invited two victims of violent crimes, the police union chair and an analyst from a conservative think tank.

Unlike other cities nationwide, the District’s top prosecutor, who is not expected to testify Thursday, is a federally appointed position.

D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D) — who rankled Republicans when he rejected that D.C. was in a crime “crisis” at a May congressional hearing — said in an interview that he was “concerned about the increase in violent crime” but saw the hearing as partisan.

“The real motivation behind the hearing is to embarrass Democrats,” said Mendelson, who said he was not invited to testify Thursday. “And unfortunately, the District is — because of our constitutional status — an easy target.”

The hearing is the third effort by the House Judiciary subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), to blast Democratic municipal leaders for their handling of crime. This spring in New York, members of the subcommittee <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/us/politics/house-republicans-hearing-bragg-manhattan.html" target="_blank">accused</a> the Manhattan district attorney of touting “pro-crime, anti-victim policies”; members targeted Chicago officials in a similar hearing this fall. Police data shows homicides in both cities have fallen compared with the same time last year.

Biggs was not immediately available for an interview Wednesday.

House Republicans’ fixation on the issue in the nation’s capital carries unusual weight: Thanks to a provision in the Constitution, members of Congress are able to wield power over the nation’s capital in ways they can’t elsewhere. They have used that power with unprecedented success this year, at multiple points putting Democrats — including <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden-2024/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">President Biden</a> — under pressure to respond to what they called “soft on crime” policies in the nation’s capital.

“This is a case where clearly the Republican majority in the House has demonstrated a policy interest in these issues on a national scale,” said Michael Thorning, an analyst on democratic issues at the Bipartisan Policy Center and an expert on D.C. home rule. But in the District, he said, “if Congress is doing this in service of its oversight of the District of Columbia, to what degree are the members involved in the hearing really looking for solutions? Or are these just opportunities to highlight a political issue for them?”

In March, Congress <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/08/dc-crime-bill-senate-vote/" target=_blank>blocked D.C.’s revised criminal code</a>, with dozens of Democrats joining Republicans in the rebuke; House Republicans’ campaign arm launched attack ads against moderate Democrats who did not. Biden signed the disapproval resolution, saying he was concerned with a provision that would have lowered the statutory maximum penalty for carjacking as the White House insisted he still supported D.C. statehood.

“We’re sending a message to every city, every county, every state that no longer will Washington be soft on crime,” then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a celebration after the D.C. disapproval resolution passed.

In May, Congress voted to block D.C.’s major police accountability legislation, which Republicans have been quick to blame for the rise in crime and half-century lows in D.C. police staffing, though <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/04/15/dc-police-staffing-crime/" target="_blank">the picture is more nuanced</a>. Biden vetoed that disapproval resolution.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) said she believes “there is reason to look at D.C. because of crime being particularly up here” but that the hearing would be useless in helping D.C. do something about it. “This one makes no sense,” she said, questioning the point after Congress already heard from the mayor, council chair and U.S. Attorney Matt Graves this year.

The Thursday hearing is expected to highlight the experiences of two people who were attacked by armed assailants in Washington. One of them, Gaynor Jablonski, was beaten this summer inside his Southeast D.C. pub by an armed man, according to court records. Prosecutors charged the defendant with assault with a dangerous weapon. The defendant pleaded guilty to attempted assault with a dangerous weapon, still a felony crime of violence, and was ultimately sentenced to eight months in prison.

The other victim expected to testify is Mitchell Sobolevsky, a man robbed of his wallet and other items in Northwest Washington in December 2020. Police arrested a 16-year-old connected to eight armed robberies, including that of Sobolevsky, and prosecutors charged him with armed robbery. The teenager ultimately pleaded down to robbery and possession of a prohibited weapon, and served a year in jail. Less than two months after he was released, court records show, the teenager robbed a 7-Eleven in Northwest Washington.

In both instances, judges sentenced the defendants to less jail time than what prosecutors had requested, according to court records.

GOP-led hearings focused on crime have often targeted local liberal prosecutors, who the representatives have said should seek tougher sentences for people convicted of violent offenses. That dynamic is more complicated in Washington given local leaders have no control over Graves, the U.S. attorney. But that hasn’t stopped House Republicans from taking aim at him. At congressional hearings this year, GOP representatives lambasted Graves for data that showed his office last year chose not to prosecute <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/29/us-attorneys-office-charges-declined-dc-police/?itid=lk_inline_manual_43" target=_blank>67 percent of people</a> arrested in cases that would have been handled in D.C. Superior Court.

Graves previously said in an interview with The Washington Post that those charging decisions were “a function of the laws we are operating under and how the system is currently functioning.” He also said the office in recent months has been prosecuting a higher percentage of cases, though the office declined to provide a specific number, saying on social media that it <a href="https://twitter.com/USAO_DC/status/1712185268193648661" target=_blank>would</a> next week.

A spokesman for the Judiciary Committee noted that he recently appeared before the committee in a closed-door interview to answer questions about “a variety of subjects.”

Norton said that if Congress wanted to help D.C., it could appropriate federal funds to help the city try to recruit more police officers, since Congress has oversight of D.C.’s budget, and scratch new proposals for D.C. budget restrictions, like one that would allow people from out of state to conceal-carry firearms in D.C. and on the Metro.

Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), who chairs its public safety committee, pointed to emergency legislation the council passed this summer that, among other things, expanded pretrial detention for people charged with violent crimes. She also asked federal lawmakers to increase investment in the District.

“I urge Congress to assist us in our goal to improve safety by supporting common sense gun control legislation, filling critical judicial vacancies in our DC Courts, increasing staffing at the U.S. attorney’s office, and allowing the District government to effectively represent the interests of our residents and visitors,” Pinto said in a statement.

Michael Brice-Saddler and Peter Hermann contributed to this report.

A previous version of this article reported that one of the crime victims expected to testify before the hearing had been robbed of his wallet and pizza dinner. The victim says he was not robbed of pizza but was robbed of other items. The article has been updated.

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Emily Davies is a reporter covering crime and criminal justice in Washington, D.C. She started at The Washington Post as an intern in June 2019.

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Meagan Flynn covers D.C. government and politics on The Post's Metro team.

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