None of the six men and women facing felony charges tied to an anti-Trump Inauguration Day protest committed a crime, jurors decided Thursday.
The six defendants had faced seven charges each. The jury returned 42 separate not-guilty verdicts.
The charges — conspiracy to riot, engaging in a riot, and five counts of criminal property destruction — came despite the government’s acknowledgement that it has no evidence any of these half-dozen people engaged in violent personal action that day. It was in effect a legal argument they were as guilty as those who had actually smashed a window, because they chose to show up in black and stay with the group as it moved through the city.
The verdict resolves only the first handful of cases in the sweeping felony prosecutions of black-clad marchers rounded up in downtown Washington, D.C., last January. Hundreds more face similar charges.
This was the beginning of Trump's attempt to America into a police state, and it fell flat on its face.
And the prosecution's overreach was apparent at the very outset.
One defense attorney compared the government’s case here to prosecuting everyone who happened to be wearing the same jersey at a football game because one group of fans in matching garb started a fight.
“The law makes clear that you can be present while others are rioting, and you don’t have to leave,” Steve McCool, who defended Oliver Harris in the case, said in his closing argument. “Think about where we would be if they could simply call protesters criminals.”
McCool also reminded jurors of evidence of political bias among some key police officers involved both in managing events on Inauguration Day and in investigating the hundreds arrested that afternoon. Key video in the case was provided by James O’Keefe’s notoriously dishonest Project Veritas group, prompting McCool to invoke the specter of right-wing revenge against left-wing anti-Trump protesters.
Oh look, another abject failure by James O'Keefe.
How many is that now?
So that is one for the 1st Amendment, and zero for Donald Trump's attempt to undermine our constitution.
Now they should just drop the charges against the other protesters and save the taxpayer money to prosecute real criminals.
Source http://ift.tt/2CVeVUc
