A man accused of aiming a laser at the presidential helicopter Marine One while it was carrying Donald Trump has been acquitted by a jury in Washington DC after less than an hour of deliberations.
Jacob Winkler, 33, was found not guilty on Tuesday following a trial that concluded with jurors reaching a verdict in about 35 minutes. He had faced a felony charge that carried a potential prison sentence of up to five years.
The case marked another setback for Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News presenter appointed by Trump as US attorney for the District of Columbia, whose office has pursued a series of high-profile prosecutions linked to alleged threats against federal officers and the president.
Winkler was arrested in September after a US Secret Service agent alleged that he saw him direct a red laser beam towards Marine One as the helicopter flew low shortly after departing the White House.
Prosecutors charged Winkler with aiming a laser at an aircraft, a felony offence. Pirro had previously said her office would pursue the case “to the fullest extent of the law”.
After closing arguments on Tuesday, jurors deliberated for just over half an hour before acquitting Winkler, according to his public defenders, Alexis Gardner and Ubong Akpan.
In a statement, the defence lawyers criticised the decision to prosecute the case, describing Winkler as a homeless man who possessed only a cat toy keychain.
They said the trial reflected a misuse of limited government resources and argued that attention should be focused on genuine threats rather than poverty.
The verdict follows a broader crackdown on crime in Washington DC after Trump declared a crime emergency last summer and ordered the deployment of federal troops to the city.
During that period, Pirro’s office filed numerous federal cases accusing residents of assaulting federal officers or threatening the president. Federal agents, including officers from the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, also carried out patrols in residential neighbourhoods.
Winkler’s acquittal echoes another recent defeat for the US attorney’s office, which failed to secure a conviction in a separate case involving an alleged assault on a federal agent.
In that incident, a man accused of throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer during a protest in November was also acquitted.
The suspect, Sean Charles Dunn, became widely known after footage circulated showing him hurling a sandwich at an officer wearing protective gear while shouting slogans against the presence of federal forces in the city.
Pirro’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Saturday. While it issued multiple press releases during the week, none referred to Winkler’s trial.
