Justice Department Opens Felony Prosecution Against Inauguration Protesters Over ACLU Objections

Posted on November 19, 2017

A new article from Al Jazeera reports that the first trial in the sprawling web of inauguration day felony rioting prosecutions has commenced as of this week. Among the group of defendants in this initial case is independent journalist Alexei Wood, who was swept up in a mass arrest of over 200 protesters by police while covering the demonstration (which CCDBR has reported on previously). 

The report also notes that, while some of the defendants have had their charges reduced to misdemeanors, the majority of them, like Wood and the co-defendants in his trial, still face felony rioting charges which leave them facing decades in prison if convicted. The Department of Justice has proceeded with Wood’s and his co-defendants’ trial in the face of an active lawsuit filed by the ACLU alleging that police arrested the protesters indiscriminately, failed to warn protesters to disperse prior to making arrests, and recklessly deployed crowd control weapons. 

You can read the full story from Al Jazeera here.