Federal Prosecutors Attacked Me for Doing Journalism
If the Biden administration is serious about protecting press freedoms, officials from Washington might want to have a stern talk with federal prosecutors in Detroit.
This is a story about a story — one that I haven’t finished reporting.
Federal prosecutors are so consumed by my efforts to report on a terrorism court case that they accused me in a recent filing of having “improper motives.” They said that, by doing routine reporting, I was somehow colluding with a terrorism defendant to “taint the jury pool and undermine the fairness of the trial.”
These dangerous claims are the subject of an evidentiary hearing in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Thursday.
The attack by the Justice Department should be seen for what it is: a breathtaking assault against journalism by the Biden administration.
Although President Joe Biden boasts that his administration defends press freedoms around the world, his Justice Department’s public claims are an egregious attack against me filled with baseless assumptions and statements taken wildly out of context.
Prosecutors appear to have subjected me to this attack for no reason other than that I was doing journalism in the public interest. (Lawyers for The Intercept submitted a letter to U.S. District Judge Jonathan J. C. Grey and will be present at the hearing Thursday.)
While shocking for its content, the government’s attack on me is not entirely surprising. The case I’m investigating raises thorny issues about the FBI’s conduct, and federal prosecutors have complained in filings and court hearings over the past year about my contact with the defendant in the case.
My reporting so far suggests that the terrorism case involves questionable dealings between federal and local law enforcement agents; intrusive surveillance over a period of years that yielded little evidence; and even potential constitutional violations. (The prosecutors in the case did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)
For digging into this, Biden’s Justice Department is accusing me of having ulterior motives — and using the allegation as an excuse to keep information from the public.
Applauding you for covering fundamental injustice, Trevor.
We see massive abuses under the pretence of "Counter Terrorism" / "National Security"-
Surveillance and operations that violate Privacy, Civil Rights and the Constitution in numerous ways.
The abuse sky-rocketed after 9/11 and Patriot Act.
Innocent Americans with no ties to crime/terrorism nominated as "threat" "suspects", "non-investigative subjects", some 400k in the US alone
(the overreach is documented in the 2008 TSDB audit report, 2024 lawsuit requires disclosure of more recent audits
- https://oig.justice.gov/reports/plus/a0816/index.htm;
- image p viii: https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/reports/FBI/a0527/final.pdf ).
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Are you familiar with the following?
(1) FBI v Fikre (2024): Supreme Court ruling against the FBI/Gov:
https://x.com/CAIRNational/status/1770132960680747342
- https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-attorney-to-offer-oral-argument-in-fifth-circuit-major-questions-doctrine-case-challenging-legality-of-federal-terrorist-watchlist/
- https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-attorney-argues-historic-watchlist-case-before-supreme-court/
- https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-oregon-man-who-challenged-no-fly-list/
* No threshold in place for referring a person to the surveillance/ extrajudicial punishment
* Literally impossible to get off that list (not even informed) under the guise of fictious #NationalSecurity-
* Many referred persons are under the age of 15
* Severe civil + human rights violations
* Journalists attempting to cover #Prevent critically are surveilled and intimidated themselves.
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(2) UN (2024) sounding the alarm on abuse under "counter terrorism" policies and practices in all Western states.
"Rampant abuse of counter-terrorism laws threaten human rights globally, warns UN expert"
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/03/rampant-abuse-counter-terrorism-laws-threaten-human-rights-globally-warns-un
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(3) Amnesty International (2023) calling out abuses and human rights violations under the UK counter-terrorism strategy.
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2023-11/Amnesty%20UK%20Prevent%20report%20%281%29.pdf?VersionId=.hjIwRZuHiGd1_lECXroFwg25jyBtwur
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==> What the Gov / Security state does to law-abiding citizens, illegally framed as "suspects", is one of the biggest SCANDALS of our times.
Citing an expert: "too shameful for any Gov to come out". (Interview on file)
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NSA whistle-blower Karen Melton-Stewart:
"Ordinary citizens and inconvenient truth-tellers are being targeted as so-called 'domestic terrorists' to maintain national security budgets.
A huge business - for torture, oppression" and worse.
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Comprehensive collection of official documents/publications, court cases, affidavits, interviews and references on file. Happy to provide details, evidence, context.
Unprecedented abuses we would only expect in totalitarian regimes.
That's why DoJ acts out sharply. Oppressing any disclosure in its tracks.
Dirty secrets safely hidden behind a stonewall of "National Security".
SECRET CRITERIA - Law enforcement / Intelligence establishing their own rules without oversight:
https://x.com/AnnaNeufeldMBS/status/1713289124784885782
- Activism incl sources: https://x.com/AnnaNeufeldMBS
- Reporting for the UK & beyond: https://x.com/AGA_PBinUK
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fake #Counterterrorism #AbuseOfPower #CommunityPolicing #DomesticGuantanamo #PresumptionOfInnocence #DueProcess
Thank you for this. The lessons we've failed to learn from the war on Julian Assange will continue to expand on all of us.