Told The $1.7 Billion Troop Deployment Did Not Lower Crime, The Administration Countered With A $5 Billion Lawsuit

WASHINGTON—Presented this week with a study finding that its National Guard deployments had done little to reduce crime, the administration reached for the rebuttal it prefers in such situations: a threat to sue for $5 billion.

The study, from the Center for American Progress, concluded that the deployments, on track to cost more than $1.7 billion by year’s end, had no measurable effect on violent crime trends. The White House gave the group until the close of business Friday to retract the report or face the suit.

A separate finding complicates the defense more than it helps. A nonpartisan group examining the troops in Washington found that their presence was followed by fewer stolen cars but no change in violent crime, which means the strongest honest claim available is that ten figures of soldiers reduced auto theft. The lawsuit is for $5 billion, roughly three times the cost of the program it is meant to vindicate.

The customary response to the news that a program did not work is a better program, or at least a better number. Here the response is a bigger number, attached to a court filing. A finding is not disproved by being sued. It is only made more expensive to have published.

The think tank has until Friday to decide. The crime statistics, which do not read legal threats and cannot be deposed, are working to no deadline at all.