Today, Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti Is Being Compelled to Appear in a Closed-Door/Secret/Sham Hearing Run by the Horrendous “Gym” Jordan

Well said by Del. Adele McClure (D-Arlington) and by Arlington/Falls Church Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti about today’s sham hearing – behind closed doors! –  by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, chaired by far-right-extremist/corrupt Rep. “Gym” Jordan (yeah, THIS GUY!). Disgraceful on every level. And what is this “star chamber” all about exactly? Per ArlNow (which “both sides” it of course), it revolves around “Dehghani-Tafti’s handling of a criminal case involving a political activist, and later over her policies restricting contact with immigration enforcement.” As Dehghani-Tafti said in that article, “My compliance with the subpoena is not, and should not be read, as an acknowledgement of the Committee’s authority to question the work of my office or interfere in the local affairs of the people of Arlington County and the City of Falls Church.” Exactly.

Today, my friend and Arlington/Falls Church Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti will appear before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.

CA Dehghani-Tafti requested that the hearing be public. She wished to provide an overview of the good work she has done as Commonwealth’s Attorney while posing her own, very legitimate questions about the Committee’s authority to interfere in local law enforcement matters.

That’s not what House Republicans want.

At the demand of the Committee’s Republicans, CA Dehghani-Tafti’s deposition will instead take place behind closed doors with a complete lack of transparency and accountability. They will pursue a disgusting, cynical agenda to impress an audience of exactly one.

People can’t afford groceries, energy, healthcare, housing, or childcare. Instead of addressing any of those concerns, House Republicans would rather waste time and taxpayer money to attack yet another woman in a position of authority.

Parisa: I and the people of Arlington are with you, we support you, and we value the work you have done and will continue to do.

Dehgani Tafti’s opening statement

Opening Remarks of Parisa Dehghani Tafti House Committee on the Judiciary

July 16, 2026, Washington, DC: Since January 2020, I have served as the elected Commonwealth’s Attorney for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, Virginia. I was re-elected by my community in 2023 and I am proud and grateful to do this work every day.

Whether representing people on death row, arguing before the Virginia Supreme Court on behalf of innocent people convicted of crimes they did not commit, advocating on behalf of poor and disabled individuals before the US Parole Commission or DC Superior Court, or using restorative justice to help victims heal while also rehabilitating criminal offenders, the throughline in my 25-year career has been that we all deserve—and indeed are constitutionally entitled to—a criminal legal system that provides both safety and justice. But, sadly and historically, we have often sacrificed the latter while failing to deliver the former.

Let me state clearly who I am and what I stand for: I am a prosecutor. Prosecutors are responsible for both upholding the rule of law and for pursing justice as defined by the community they serve. So, I am a prosecutor committed to reform, and my philosophy is simple: not every social problem needs to be criminalized; not every crime has to lead to punishment; not every punishment has to result in incarceration; and not every instance of incarceration has to be so punitive that it sacrifices rehabilitation.

How my prosecutorial philosophy translates in practice is equally clear: our office is serious about safety, serious about helping victims heal from the traumas they have experienced, and serious about upholding the rule of law – which includes procedural and constitutional rights.

To that end, our office established a restorative justice program because this focuses on both justice for the victim and active accountability for offenders; we helped launch a behavioral health docket because mentally ill people need treatment, not jail; our office does not ask for cash bail because cash bail penalizes the poor simply for being poor; we do not require defendants to waive their constitutional rights as a condition of plea agreements because we take seriously the fact that nearly half of the provisions of the Bill of Rights concern protection of people accused of crimes; we established a conviction integrity unit – the first of its kind in Virginia – because false convictions are morally wrong, allow the real perpetrators to escape accountability, and detract from the legitimacy of our system; and we stopped using peremptory strikes in jury selection because history has shown they disproportionally exclude Black and poor people from jury pools.

What we have learned over the last six years is that these policies work.

They work to reduce recidivism: we have a 22% lower recidivism rate for the misdemeanor cases we dismiss or divert from the criminal system according to the 5-year mark.

These policies work to help us succeed at trial: we take a higher proportion of cases to trial than the last administration and succeed at trial – even on the top charge – at a higher rate than the prior administration.

These policies work to keep crime low: Arlington and the City of Falls Church are two of the safest communities in the nation. A 10-year overview of cases and charges brought to us by all our law enforcement partners demonstrates that our community is better off.

Having said all of that, while I appear today out of respect for Congress and for the office I hold, I do not understand why I am here.

If, as prior communications from this Committee noted, the purpose of this closed-door deposition is to inquire into the prosecutorial decisions my office made with respect to an alleged misdemeanor involving an Arlington resident and White House senior advisor, Stephen Miller, I have already explained my reasoning in a 75-page memorandum our Office filed resolving the case.

Apart from that public memo and what I’ve stated this morning, I will answer questions about matters that occurred in open court, information contained in public court filings, and matters already in the public record.

But I cannot answer questions that require me to disclose personally identifying information about victims, witnesses, defendants, or other individuals; confidential law enforcement materials; or privileged communications, including internal prosecutorial deliberations.

If the purpose of this deposition is to inquire about the policies and practices of my office regarding immigrants, our policy is clear:

• If an immigrant is a victim, our job is to get them justice and support their healing. Just as it is for every victim.

• If an immigrant is a witness, our job is to ensure their lawful cooperation. Just as it is for every witness.

• If an immigrant is a defendant, it is our job to hold them accountable and exercise our discretion to determine what that means in each individual case. Just like it is for every defendant.

An elected prosecutor’s job is not to enforce immigration law, and it is not to support the federal government in its enforcement of immigration law.

Lastly, I want to reiterate that my appearance today should not be mistaken for agreement with the premise or purpose of this closed-door proceeding. As the elected Commonwealth’s Attorney, I answer to the people of Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, to the courts, to the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and to the Constitution. I do not answer to politicians seeking to score political points, and certainly do not make prosecutorial decisions based on political pressure or the preferences of other elected officials.

I take seriously the idea of what is a just society described by John Rawls: one where, if you know everything about it, you would be willing to enter it in any random place.

My job is to help create for my community what I want for my own family: a safe place where everyone is treated fairly and where everyone receives equal justice under the law – where the justice you receive does not depend on the accident of your birth, the balance of your bank account, the contents of your political beliefs, or the fact that you happen to have friends in high places.

xxx