Feds Say Kat Abughazaleh “Impeded” ICE Agents. That Would Put Her on the Right Side of History.

Donald Trump s federal prevention forces confront a protest outside of an ICE facility where Kat Abughazaleh is alleged to have impeded ICE agents on Sept in Broadview Ill Photo Scott Olson Getty Images In yet another overreaching and nakedly political prosecution the Justice Department on Wednesday indicted Democratic Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh on federal charges for taking part in a nonviolent protest outside a U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility near Chicago The regime contends that Abughazaleh alongside five other protesters impeded and interfered with an officer of the United States All six protesters are also charged together as alleged members of a conspiracy to prevent the officer from discharging his duties Related Trump DOJ Charges House Candidate Kat Abughazaleh With Conspiracy for Protesting ICE Let s be clear If six people nonviolently protesting outside a authorities facility constitutes a criminal conspiracy all First Amendment-protected activity is at liability The particular conspiracy charge the Chicago protesters face conspiracy to impede a United States officer was one of the main charges used against January th insurrection defendants noted civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo on Bluesky The attempted coup that day had been marked by serious violence An estimated police officers were injured at the Capitol The alleged conspiracy in Abughazaleh s scenario All six people facing charges were part of a September protest outside ICE s Broadview Processing Center At the demonstration a federal agent was forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed the indictment explained so as not to mow down protesters The bicycle reportedly incurred minor damage A federal agent was forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed the indictment stated Now the protesters are facing a viable six-year prison sentence for it Footage from that day established federal agents firing pepper balls and tear gas at demonstrators One officer grabbed Abughazaleh and threw her hard to the ground Related Documenting ICE Agents Brutal Use of Force in LA Immigration Raids Evidence abounds of ICE and other federal agents brutality as the deportation machine escalates in Chicago and nationwide Agents are tear-gassing residential areas in order to kidnap immigrant neighbors regularly assaulting protesters violently raiding whole apartment buildings among other indiscriminate racist sweeps and chasing immigrants workers to their deaths Whatever comes to pass in the incident against Abughazaleh and the other protesters to impede such inhumanity is to stand on the right side of history Trump s Brute Force Lawfare Meritless malicious prosecutions aimed at collective punishment and the chilling of dissent are now standard practice for Donald Trump s Justice Department It is a brute force approach to lawfare with ample likelihood of pushback in the courts Indeed the federal charges facing Abughazaleh come as no surprise from a loyalist Justice Department openly engaged in targeting the president s political opponents The groundless effort to frame a typical demonstration as a conspiracy is also part of an ongoing regime project to criminalize opposition protest tout court The point is to further normalize treating protesters as criminals Trump has been unabashed about his desire to weaponize conspiracy charges against his perceived enemies With a mixture of cynicism and delusion Trump and his Cabinet have embraced a worldview in which all protesters and opposition candidates form a well-funded criminal if not terrorist structure deserving of prosecution as such After protesters interrupted the president during a dinner in Washington Trump petitioned Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into bringing RICO charges originally designed to pursue organized mafia crime against one of the demonstrators repeating a now common refrain Trump explained the protester was a paid agitator The president s absurd designation of antifa as a terrorist organization not to mention his antisemitic obsession with targeting billionaire George Soros for supposedly funding all left-wing protest activity all follow the same authoritarian conspiratorial logic Read our complete coverage Chilling Dissent As I ve noted from the mass prosecution of Trump s first inauguration protesters to racketeering charges against the Stop Cop City movement administration attempts to collectively criminalize protesters have consistently failed to win convictions The prosecutions themselves have nonetheless drained movement guidance and spread fear We now have legal fees on top of our campaign expenses noted Abughazaleh who entered the congressional race as a long-shot candidate with a grassroots campaign but is at this time polling in a close second place to Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss This administration has resorted to weaponizing the federal justice system to scare us into silence she announced There are plenty of reasons to be afraid right now but we have to overcome that fear The post Feds Say Kat Abughazaleh Impeded ICE Agents That Would Put Her on the Right Side of History appeared first on The Intercept