With Donald Trump, no basic freedom enshrined in the Bill of Rights is safe.
That includes the Freedom of the Press.
Days after the courts refused to grant an arrest warrant, the Trump Fascist Injustice Department went ahead and arrested local writer Georgia Fort and former CNN journalist Don Lemon under the ludicrous charge that they took part in a protest at the Cities Church in St Paul, Minnesota, where an ICE official is one of the leading Pastors.
It is reasonable to predict that these baseless charges will not stand the test of judicial review.
Covering a protest as journalists, as Lemon and Fort maintained they were doing, is not the same as taking part in the event, despite what American Duce Wannabe Trump and his dreary band of Fascist-White Nationalist-lowlives in his regime would want the people to believe.
Reaction from Arizona Congressional Democrats to the arrests has also been predictable.
They all called it what it is. An attack on Freedom of Press and the Bill of Rights.
Representative Yassamin Ansari wrote:
“Arresting journalists is a five-alarm fire as the authoritarian takeover of our country accelerates. Pam Bondi must answer for it. I’m leading my colleagues in demanding action. We have to use every lever we have, including DHS funding, as Trump and Republicans shred the Constitution.”
She also posted a letter her and her House colleagues sent to Trump’s lawyer Pam Bondi, expressing their outrage over this perversion of the justice system.
Representative Adelita Grijalva offered:
“This is what dictators do. Don Lemon is a political prisoner of the Trump regime. This is a blatant assault on the freedom of the press that cannot be allowed to stand.”
After the arrest, Representative Greg Stanton wrote:
“Don Lemon and Georgia Fort’s work as journalists is protected by the First Amendment.
The Trump administration continues to ignore the Constitution, weaponizing the federal government to intimidate and silence critics.
They must be released immediately.”
Appearing on CNN, Senator Mark Kelly told anchor Erin Burnett:
“It’s not just about Don Lemon, Erin. It’s about you and every other journalist in this country. If you cross this President, he’s going to come after you. We’ve never seen anything like this in our 250 years. That’s why it’s important for all of us to stand up and speak out and point out as frequently as we can the violations of people’s rights that we’re seeing from this White House.”
Senator Ruben Gallego posted:
“I was just talking to Don Lemon on Monday. He’s doing what journalists are supposed to do: asking questions and speaking truth. In the past week, this Administration has now blown through the First, Second, and Fourth amendments in Minneapolis. We can’t let this government trample over our rights.”
Gallego, in showing solidarity, also appeared on Lemon’s podcast show.
Instead of going after innocent journalists or political enemies, Pam Bondi should rediscover her humanity and reassert the independence of her Department and investigate allegations of real crimes like Mr. Trump’s part in shredding the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, or his election tampering in Fulton County, Georgia, or his involvement in sex crimes against underage girls with Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
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Notice anything similar about these two journos?