Yet another *****-slap delivered to Trump by a judge---protesters free on own recognizance--charges down-graded.
www.nbcnews.com
Judges in Minnesota denied motions by the Trump administration to detain three protesters arrested this week for demonstrating inside a St. Paul church whose pastor allegedly works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
U.S. District Judge Laura M. Provinzino wrote in her order for two of the protesters, Nekima Valdez Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, that Justice Department lawyers failed to “demonstrate that a detention hearing is warranted, or that detention is otherwise appropriate.”
The judge found the Trump administration offered “no factual or legal support” to support its contention that this was a “crime of violence.” The third protester, William Scott Kelly, was separately ordered released by a federal magistrate judge.
But records show that the federal magistrate judge found there was no probable cause to charge Levy Armstrong and Allen on FACE Act charges, and they instead face a single count of conspiracy against constitutional rights, a statute with roots in the post-Civil War era. The law makes it a crime to conspire with others to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” anyone exercising their constitutional rights, and was one of the crimes Jack Smith alleged Donald Trump committed in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Kelly also appears now to be facing only one charge of conspiracy against rights.
Federal judges reject DOJ motion to detain arrested Minnesota protesters
One judge found the Trump administration offered “no factual or legal support” to support its contention that this was a “crime of violence.”
Judges in Minnesota denied motions by the Trump administration to detain three protesters arrested this week for demonstrating inside a St. Paul church whose pastor allegedly works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
U.S. District Judge Laura M. Provinzino wrote in her order for two of the protesters, Nekima Valdez Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, that Justice Department lawyers failed to “demonstrate that a detention hearing is warranted, or that detention is otherwise appropriate.”
The judge found the Trump administration offered “no factual or legal support” to support its contention that this was a “crime of violence.” The third protester, William Scott Kelly, was separately ordered released by a federal magistrate judge.
But records show that the federal magistrate judge found there was no probable cause to charge Levy Armstrong and Allen on FACE Act charges, and they instead face a single count of conspiracy against constitutional rights, a statute with roots in the post-Civil War era. The law makes it a crime to conspire with others to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate” anyone exercising their constitutional rights, and was one of the crimes Jack Smith alleged Donald Trump committed in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Kelly also appears now to be facing only one charge of conspiracy against rights.
