Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday said the Department of Justice will be using the Hobbs Act to prosecute rioters in Los Angeles who have vandalized businesses.
Congress passed the Hobbs Act in 1946 to combat racketeering in labor-management disputes, which were frequent at the time. The Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Culbert in 1978 that the Hobbs Act was not limited to acts of racketeering but included robbery and extortion traditionally addressed through state laws.
Bondi said a person convicted of a Hobbs Act robbery crime faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
“We’ve been seeing on the news, all of these drug stores getting robbed, getting looted,” Bondi told reporters outside the White House. “The Apple Store just got raided. I mean, we’re all watching this live on the news. And this isn’t just looting to me – you think people just run in, take something, leave, and nothing happens.
“We’re using the Hobbs Act. We are charging robbery to protect Californians under this. If you loot a store, we are going to charge you with robbery under the Hobbs Act, and you’re looking at a maximum of 20 years in prison. But we’re going to prosecute you for that. Identifying people now. It’s a different world.”
Bondi criticized Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom for not doing enough to keep Californians safe amid the rioting that began following Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations last week in Los Angeles. The resulting violence and chaos forced President Donald Trump to activate the California National Guard against Newsom’s wishes, and to deploy Marines to the city.
“Right now, it’s keeping California safe,” Bondi said. “If Gavin Newsom isn’t going to keep California safe, we are. They imposed a curfew last night; I think that helped a bit. But today, we wanted them to declare … they didn’t declare an economic disaster out there, with all of the businesses [affected]. Had they done that, Kelly Loeffler and the Small Business Administration could have come in and helped [to give] federal aid to all of these businesses in California.”
Bondi described the situation in Los Angeles as “total chaos,” saying the National Guard is needed to protect federal buildings and law enforcement, and the Marines are needed to protect the National Guard.
“We had a law enforcement officer injured – they’re throwing bricks at cars,” she said. “This is very orchestrated. They’re not just cinder bricks. … We’ve all seen on the news where the sidewalks, they’re coming in with these huge sledgehammers breaking up the sidewalks and taking these huge pieces of concrete, throwing them off a bridge, throwing them at people. It’s truly miracle that no one has been seriously injured or killed yet.
“This is serious out there. We want to protect people. We want to protect law enforcement and all the hardworking people there who are trying to go to work every day, their businesses are shuttered. They can’t do anything because of this, and it has to stop.”
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