George Santos, AG Garland's charging memo, Pam Bondi, oh my

My post title not only reflects my Ozian mood, but also my effort to get extra attention for this last banger post by Jonathan Wroblewski over at the Sentencing Matters substack.  The post lurks under the sly simple query in its title: "What Ever Happened to Attorney General Garland’s Charging and Sentencing Policy?".  What follow is a kittle something for everyone at this particular moment of Justice Department reflection, especially as it relates to charging/plea practices and mandatory minimums.  I highly recommend the post in full, and here are just a few tastes: 

The fact that the U.S. Attorney insisted on [George] Santos pleading guilty to a charge carrying a mandatory minimum imprisonment sentence – and that he proudly proclaimed it publicly – was a bit puzzling, to me anyway. You see at the beginning of the Biden Administration, my job in the bureaucracy was to lead a Department working group that examined a whole host of sentencing and corrections policies and recommended changes to many of those policies for the new Administration....

As part of that work, the working group teed up for Attorney General Merrick Garland a new charging policy, actually several different drafts. And after many months of deliberation, in December 2022, Attorney General Garland issued a new policy. If you are not familiar with it, you can read it for yourself here. Out in the open for all to see. It told federal prosecutors not to charge statutes carrying mandatory minimum imprisonment terms except in limited circumstances....

Of course, we know why the U.S. Attorney charged the aggravated identity theft counts, and we know why he insisted that one of those counts be part of the plea agreement. The U.S. Attorney stood up at a podium and told us why. He wanted to be certain that George Santos would spend at least two years in prison. He wanted to take some sentencing options out of the hands of the presiding judge....

Of course, now, with the election of President Trump and the soon-to-be-nomination of Matt Gaetz Pam Bondi to be Attorney General, the policy ritual [for developing a new DOJ charging memo] is sure to begin again. Maybe seeing his friend and sex party companion charged with child sex trafficking, a charge carrying a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment, will lead Gaetz to think twice before reinstating the Sessions’ memo. Notably, back in 2018, the year President Trump signed the First Step Act into law, Bondi led a bipartisan group of 38 state attorneys general supporting criminal justice reform in the federal prison system. So maybe she’ll think twice before reinstating the Sessions’ memo. We’ll see. And maybe Trump will pardon George Santos. I hear there’s still an opening for several Assistant Attorneys General.

One last point – the Garland memo also made a promise –

The Department will develop and implement a software program that enables real-time, trackable reporting by districts and litigating divisions of all charges brought by the Department that include mandatory minimum sentences. Until that time, each United States Attorney’s Office and litigating division must report semi-annually to the Executive Office for United States Attorneys the number and percentage of charging documents and plea agreements in which it has included mandatory minimum charges.

The memo has been in place for about two years now. I don’t recall seeing any data from the Department on the implementation of the new policy. Have you? Did the Department ever develop and implement a software program that enables real-time, trackable reporting by districts and litigating divisions of all charges brought by the Department that include mandatory minimum sentences? Did it ever ask each United States Attorney’s Office and litigating division to report semi-annually to the Executive Office for United States Attorneys the number and percentage of charging documents and plea agreements in which it has included mandatory minimum charges?