Double standards shield ICE and prosecutors

Legal accountability for perjury by ICE agents and prosecutors is honestly a joke sometimes. Like, we all saw Defendant Bovino flat-out admit he lied under oath, but do we ever see perjury charges when it’s someone working for the government? Of course not. Regular people get charged immediately, but if it’s the DA or an ICE agent, suddenly none of the usual rules apply. The kicker is that it’s the district attorney who has to actually press charges for perjury - and sometimes, they’re literally Trump appointees or otherwise politically connected. Judges only hear the cases brought before them, so if the DA refuses to act, nothing happens. But let’s not pretend judges have zero power here. Sure, they can’t just stop the whole court system or force a prosecutor to do their job, but judges do have the authority to manage their own courtroom. In really wild situations, if a district attorney is obviously biased and ignoring blatant perjury, a judge could go public and basically say, “You’re not legitimate until you file charges against your own people.” They might even encourage folks to sue the DA personally under federal civil rights laws like 42 U.S.C. § 1983 or § 1985. That’s not just theory - Melendres v. Maricopa County in 2018 smacked local police and DAs for racial profiling using similar legal tools. Prosecutorial immunity is tough to get around, but it’s not impenetrable. Still, the reality is you almost never see a judge refuse to hear cases from a DA just because they won’t file perjury charges. To pull that off, the judge would have to convince higher courts and basically rally public opinion to their side. And at the end of the day, prosecutors have massive discretion on which cases to bring, and judges can’t just order US attorneys to prosecute anyone. The double standard is baked in, and honestly, it’s brutal to watch.