Stephen Miller has erupted at “blatant jury nullification” after a Los Angeles tow truck driver was acquitted of stealing an ICE vehicle in the latest embarrassment for Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
Bobby Nuñez, 33, was charged with theft of government property after towing away a locked ICE SUV—with its keys and firearm secured inside—during a chaotic immigration arrest in downtown Los Angeles on Aug. 15.
Video from the scene showed federal agents chasing the truck as it pulled away, before arresting Nuñez and leading him away in handcuffs.
A federal jury found Nuñez not guilty after a four-day trial. His lawyer told NBC that the verdict “exonerated our client” and thanked jurors “for serving as an essential backstop against prosecutorial overreach.”
A spokesman for U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli, who previously boasted online that Nuñez would “laugh behind bars,” acknowledged the outcome on Friday: “A jury found Mr. Nuñez not guilty. He was free on bond prior to the trial. We have no further comment.”
On Sunday, Essayli posted to X about his failed prosecution: “We stand behind the charges and would file them again if he engages in the same conduct.”
The sheepish responses to Nuñez’s acquittal stand in stark contrast to Essayil’s crowing public response to the driver’s arrest.
The case had been widely publicized after Essayli’s Sept. 2 X post, which featured video of Nuñez’s arrest alongside the caption: “How it started vs. how it’s going.”
Essayli wrote: “Apparently he thought it would be funny to interfere with our immigration enforcement operations. Now he can laugh behind bars while he faces justice. Nunez is looking at up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted.”
Essayli’s post now carries a community note linking to a news article confirming the acquittal.
Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration policy, was less restrained. “Another example of blatant jury nullification in a blue city,” he wrote on X in reply to a post by a right-wing news organization claiming the case had been decided by a “leftist” jury, adding that “mass migration tribalizes the entire legal system.”
Nuñez’s acquittal is the latest in a string of courtroom defeats for Trump’s DOJ, which has pledged to aggressively prosecute anyone it believes is interfering with federal immigration enforcement.
An Associated Press investigation published Thursday found that dozens of cases against anti-ICE protesters trumpeted by the government have collapsed.
Of 100 people charged with felony assaults on federal agents in connection with protests or enforcement disruptions in four Democratic-led cities, more than half had their charges reduced or dismissed outright, with all five defendants who went to trial acquitted.
Among them was animal hospital worker Sydney Lori Reid, 44, from Washington, D.C., who was cleared after prosecutors accused her of assaulting an agent who later described her own wounds as “boo-boos.”
In Los Angeles, paralegal Katherine Carreño, 32, had her felony charge reduced to a misdemeanor and was then found not guilty after video evidence contradicted federal claims that she had attacked an officer.
Legal experts say the spate of acquittals highlights the Justice Department’s struggles to prove intent or serious harm in many immigration-related prosecutions. “The rhetoric on Twitter and in press releases is not surviving the courtroom,” former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason told the Associated Press.
The Justice Department, when approached by the Daily Beast for comment, pointed to its Friday statement.
