Senate Republicans on Wednesday spotlighted violent crime in Washington, D.C., during a press conference featuring testimony from Washington Examiner reporter Anna Giaritelli, who said her assault was mishandled and never counted in official crime data.

“I had no idea that D.C. police were and continue to cover up crime until I became a victim and went and looked for my own crime stats and found none,” said Giaritelli, who shared her personal story but didn’t wade into politics.

Recommended Stories

• Duffy reveals plans to make DC's Union Station 'safe and beautiful again'
• Cities resisting Trump's help against crime 'need it the most': Tiana Doescher
• Bowser commits DC police to coordinate with federal officers indefinitely, citing crime decrease

At the press conference on Capitol Hill, Giaritelli recounted how she was sexually assaulted in broad daylight outside Union Station in 2020. Police identified her attacker through DNA evidence, but a judge released him the next day because of concerns about jail overcrowding. Over the next year and a half, Giaritelli said, he was arrested five more times, including for indecent exposure outside the Supreme Court and for wielding a machete. However, she said he was quickly released each time.

.@Anna_Giaritelli: “He had returned to living on the street blocks from my apartment building, and I didn't feel safe, and so I moved away from DC into the state of Texas.” pic.twitter.com/42vZENkE6B

— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) September 3, 2025

Giaritelli’s attacker was finally held in jail in late 2021 after the case moved to trial, and in 2022, he pleaded guilty to sexual abuse and was sentenced to prison. Giaritelli said her attacker served only about two years before being released, despite also having attacked an off-duty female police officer and accumulating multiple other arrests.

“He had returned to living on the street blocks from my apartment building, and I didn’t feel safe, and so I moved away from D.C. into the state of Texas,” said Giaritelli, who covers immigration and homeland security for the Washington Examiner. “What happened to me was humiliating as a woman, and it was disgusting. And the way I was treated by the police sends a message that what happened to me didn’t matter.”

Giaritelli later discovered that only first-degree and some second-degree charges appear on the city’s crime map.

“Why don’t I count, and how many more women, men, and children have been uncounted?” she asked.

Republicans said Giaritelli’s story epitomized the dangers of the district’s broken justice system and lack of transparency. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) praised Giaritelli for “shining a light” on public safety failures and the city’s habit of “cooking the books” to downplay crime.

Cornyn said Republicans are working with U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to pursue legal changes, including reforms to how juvenile offenders are prosecuted, while urging the district’s mayor and City Council to embrace tougher enforcement.

“Ultimately, the responsibility should be at the mayor and city council level,” Cornyn said, “but if they’re not going to do the job, particularly in the nation’s capital, we will.”

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) said Giaritelli’s case was not isolated, arguing that similar crimes occur “eight times a day” in the city. He warned that residents, tourists, students, and congressional staff are too often left vulnerable.

“Visitors don’t come to Washington to face a murder every other day or a carjacking on a daily basis,” Marshall said. “They come to see their nation’s capital, and they should be safe while they’re here.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) tied the matter to Congress’s constitutional role, warning that if local officials fail to protect residents, lawmakers may need to reconsider the district’s home rule status.

“This city has a national constituency,” Lee said. “If crime is a problem here, we have to own it.”

The matter gained additional urgency last week as the House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into allegations that Metropolitan Police Department leadership manipulated crime statistics to make the city appear safer. Whistleblowers alleged that supervisors instructed officers to downgrade felony crimes to misdemeanors across all seven patrol districts. At least one district commander was placed on leave.

The press conference comes amid signs of a longer-term federal presence in the district, but that has not been finalized, according to reporting from CNN. On Tuesday, Trump signaled plans to expand his crime initiative to other cities.

“We’re going in,” he said of possible deployments to Chicago and Baltimore. “I have an obligation. This isn’t a political thing.”

Cornyn backed Trump’s stance, dismissing Democratic governors who have argued that federal enforcement without consent infringes on state sovereignty.

“I think they’re wrong,” Cornyn said. “Somehow, President Trump has taken a stand for public safety and caused mayors and governors in some of these blue states to take a stand for the criminals and for a lack of public safety. You would think they would welcome the help that President Trump has offered, rather than resisting and tolerating this new normal.”

However, local leaders pushed back. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has cooperated with federal efforts, has expressed mixed sentiments. She has acknowledged that the surge helped reduce violent crime but called it a “break in trust,” questioning masked federal presence in local neighborhoods and emphasizing the importance of transparency.  Meanwhile, in a stronger rebuke, Washington, D.C., Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, said the district “did not request or consent to the mass deployment of National Guard troops … despite D.C.’s crime rate being at a 30‑year low.”

Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL) also strongly rejected Trump’s apparent strategy.

“No, I will not call the president asking troops to be sent to Chicago,” Pritzker said on Tuesday, adding that he refuses to “play a reality game show with Donald Trump again.”

Pritzker affirmed that his state would challenge any unauthorized deployment in court.

By seizing on the federal crackdown in the district, Republicans are working to make crime a defining issue heading into the 2026 midterm elections. Party leaders have signaled they want to force Democrats into difficult votes on policing and public safety, a strategy they believe contrasts with what they call the district’s “soft-on-crime” leadership. 

A MAN WENT TO PRISON FOR ASSAULTING ME. DC POLICE CRIME STATS SHOW HE WAS NEVER ARRESTED

Charts at the Wednesday press conference highlighted declines in burglary, robbery, and carjackings since the National Guard’s arrival in the district. However, as Republicans pointed to the numbers, Giaritelli reminded them that statistics alone don’t tell the full story. She said her assault never appeared in the city’s data, even though it led to a conviction and a prison sentence.

“I’m here today for the victims who D.C. police refuse to count,” Giaritelli said. “There are no big victims and little victims, there are just victims. I’m here for the uncounted ones.”