House Oversight opens probe into DC groups' jury nullification trainings

Right · 1On Tuesday 13 October 2026, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requested documents from two Washington, DC groups, Free DC and Harriet's Wildest Dreams, about their jury nullification trainings, as part of a new investigation. 1 Right · 1Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) wrote in two letters that the groups may be undermining the Constitution's requirement for impartial juries. The Washington Examiner reported that the inquiry came in response to its own story about the trainings. 1 Right · 1Comer alleged that the juror guidance tells activists to falsely present themselves as unbiased and to conceal information that attorneys and judges would use to assess their impartiality. 1

Right · 1The committee seeks internal communications, advertisements, presentations, recordings, attendee lists, training materials, information about outside advisers and funding records, covering 1 January 2025 to the present, with a 27 October deadline. The requests are not legally binding unless the committee later issues subpoenas. 1 Right · 1The Washington Examiner said neither group responded to its requests for comment. It described Harriet's Wildest Dreams as a prison abolition group founded in 2021 by former Black Lives Matter leaders, and Free DC as a street-protest group that emerged last year in opposition to President Donald Trump's second term. 1 Right · 1The Examiner quoted Harriet's Wildest Dreams co-founder Qiana Johnson telling attendees at an August training, "You have this superpower, and that superpower is you are able to nullify that godd*** jury." It also quoted Johnson saying she wanted to take 40-50% of the credit for the acquittal of Sean Dunn, charged with assault for allegedly throwing a sandwich at a federal officer, because she suspected a juror had joined a training. 1

Right · 1The probe also follows a September mistrial in the bribery trial of former DC Councilman Trayon White after a deadlocked jury, which Harriet's Wildest Dreams celebrated on Instagram. 1 Right · 1A constitutional law expert previously told the Examiner that attending a jury nullification workshop would not automatically disqualify someone from jury service, but that lying or deliberately withholding relevant information during jury selection could cross a legal line. 1 Right · 1In a 15 October column, Reason's Damon Root argued that jury nullification is not a crime and that Founders such as James Wilson and Thomas Jefferson supported jurors judging the constitutionality of laws and prosecutions. He cited The Washington Post's report that Comer called the trainings an illegal attempt to subvert federal prosecutors. 2