This week, Arlington's prosecutor will be on Capitol Hill to testify in a closed-door hearing.
Last month, House Republicans called Fairfax County prosecutor Steve Descano to Capitol Hill to testify about his approach to crime committed by undocumented immigrants. But the hearing might not have gone as planned, says Norfolk Commonwealth's Attorney Ramin Fatehi.
"The Descano hearing was a piece of political theater that the Republicans lost control of," Fatehi says. "They thought that they were going to bring in a progressive prosecutor and get all these gotchas, and instead, they saw a competent prosecutor who had answers for them and who embarrassed them."
Now, they're calling Arlington prosecutor Parisa Dehghani Tafti to the Rayburn Building, but this time it'll be behind closed doors.
"If you really want to talk about public accountability, then we need to have these types of conversations in the public," says Arlington County Board Member J.D. Spain.
"I don't know what needs to be discussed behind closed doors. It gives me the, you know, the heebie-jeebies. I'm concerned about it. And what comes out of that, do we even know as a public if it's the truth?"
Tafti says she wants an open hearing rather than a secret deposition. The testimony is scheduled for Thursday.
