Feds Lied About Journalist Arrested While Covering Anti-ICE Protest

The federal government provided false information in its attempt to prosecute independent journalist Georgia Fort, her lawyers say.

The Guardian reports that in court filings, Fort’s attorneys argue that federal prosecutors are trying to build a case against her over her coverage of a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January. Fort’s team is asking for the case to be dismissed.

The administration has charged nearly 40 people, including Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon, over the protest, which centered on the fact that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent serves as a pastor for the congregation.

In at least 15 search warrant applications, Homeland Security Investigations said that Fort was chanting with protesters when they entered the church, a claim that the Department of Justice later admitted was false. Prosecutors tried to argue that the mistake wasn’t consequential because it wasn’t mentioned in Fort’s indictment.

Fort’s lawyers want more information about what prosecutors told the federal grand jury before it decided to indict the journalist, because they could have mentioned other false details.

“It is clear to me that in this case the government in many respects, candidly, has gone off the rails,” Matthew Ebert, one of Fort’s lawyers, said at a July 24 court hearing. “If the government is confused and can’t keep its story straight about the evidence in a 39-defendant case and incorrectly and repeatedly lumps my client, a journalist, together incorrectly with the conduct of others who were engaged in a protest, if they can’t keep it straight, all the more reason I’m concerned about what they said to the grand jury.”

After that hearing, Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko ordered federal prosecutors to turn over all grand jury proceedings related to Fort, as well as another journalist, Michael Beute.

Fort’s lawyers also have objections to federal investigators trying to access Fort’s reporting. A judge has rejected two attempts by investigators to get her work, noting that they seemed to have forgotten the Privacy Protection Act, which protects journalists from being forced to turn over their work to authorities.

The government has tried to gain access to Fort’s social media accounts too, including the names and contact information of her subscribers. When a judge put a stop to that, the government tried to use customs summonses. Those attempts are controversial in that the government won’t admit in writing what information it has obtained or whether it is continuing to use those summonses, suggesting that prosecutors are either trying to hide something, or they know that the government’s activities might not be legal.

Even Fox News struggled to put a positive spin on a dismal July jobs report, as the U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs that month.

“Again, a disappointing jobs report,” Fox Business’s Lauren Simonetti said on Mornings with Maria on Friday. “Dow Futures way up, doubling where they were before.”

“23,000 jobs lost in the month of July,” Maria Bartiromo continued before turning to investor Louis Navellier. “Louis, you wanted a weak report and you got it. Was this too weak?”

Many of the jobs lost were in local government and leisure and hospitality—real jobs that real people, who are already dealing with slowed wages and rising inflation, work. Instead of focusing on their material reality, Navellier framed the weak jobs report as good because massive corporations like Palantir were still benefitting.

“When Palantir announced their earnings, they basically had record earnings by decreasing their sales force,” he said. “So there’s this AI productivity boom underway … this is great news, that’s why the market’s up … so this is great news. Obviously a lot of people disappeared from the workforce.”

The rest of the segment continued to ignore the real world implications of 23,000 lost jobs in the month of July, especially paired with high gas prices and tariff-based inflation. And while the unemployment rate fell 0.1 percent, that is due to people leaving the workforce entirely, not getting new jobs.

President Trump, ever-sensitive to negative jobs reports, has yet to comment.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski announced Friday that she would not support acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to permanently take on the role.

Murkowski laid out her concerns that, as head of the Department of Justice, Blanche would fail to check the Trump administration’s “worst impulses.”

“The politicization—even weaponization—of the Department did not start with this administration but has accelerated during it,” she wrote in a statement. “I take issue with the handling of the release of the Epstein files; the sweeping immunity protections granted to the President, his family, and their businesses; the statements that have been made to anti-abortion groups; and the repeated targeting of individuals ranging from former administration staff to sitting U.S. Senators.”

Then Murkowski called Blanche’s bluff about Donald Trump’s so-called “anti-weaponization fund.” The Alaska Republican claimed that the money was clearly headed for January 6 rioters, and was “only off the table because this nomination is pending and the Senate has leverage.”

“Once we vote, that will end, and there is no telling what the future holds,” she wrote.

Murkowski joins Maine Senator Susan Collins in opposing Blanche’s nomination. Now, all eyes are on Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, whose vote could sink Blanche’s confirmation. Cassidy has voiced his concerns about lawfare at the Department of Justice, and been an outspoken critic of Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund. Blanche met with Murkowski and Cassidy on Capitol Hill Wednesday, but it was clearly not enough to convince at least Murkowski.

If Cassidy refuses to support Blanche before the August recess, he would still continue to serve as acting Attorney General. But the failure would represent a major blow to Trump’s grip on Republicans.

An endorsement from President Donald Trump wasn’t enough for Republican Representative Andy Ogles, who lost his primary election in Tennessee Thursday night.

Former state agricultural commissioner Charlie Hatcher, who won endorsements from Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, former Governor Bill Haslam, and other Republicans such as former Trump Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, was able to take advantage of better fundraising and ad spending. 

But a key factor in the race was Tennessee’s newly redrawn congressional districts, which state Republicans pushed through after the Supreme Court’s April ruling gutting the Voting Rights Act. Tennessee used to have one majority-Black district, its 9th congressional district, but that was broken apart and absorbed into the state’s other majority-Republican districts, including Ogles’s 5th district. In Thursday’s primary, 82 percent of the district’s voters were newly added.  

Ogles has faced a myriad of scandals and controversies in office. He claimed earlier this year that “Muslims don’t belong in American society,” he’s faced ethics concerns over how he handled campaign funds, he’s lied about his college education, and he raised money to build a garden for his stillborn child that was never built. 

Two years ago, the FBI even executed a search warrant on Ogles related to his financial misdeeds, seizing his phone in the process. In May this year, however, Trump’s Department of Justice signaled that it was wrapping up the probe, doing Ogles a solid in time for the midterms. Ultimately, it didn’t win Ogles any favors from his new constituents, who sent him packing. 

The Democratic National Committee is blaming a late property tax bill on a procedural issue, the latest in a sequence of blunders from the party’s executive leadership.

The DNC owes the District of Columbia more than $300,000 in property taxes, interest and penalties on its flagship headquarters in Washington, D.C., accruing debt over six months. The building itself is valued at $12.1 million.

“The processing issue resulted from standard fraud prevention practices, and we are promptly addressing it,” DNC spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told USA Today.

Tax records show a $147,000 bill—with $23,000 in late fees—from February 17, with a due date of March 31. The records show someone from the DNC making a property tax payment of $166,700 on July 23, only to have it declined. And on Tuesday, the DNC received a penalty for nonsufficient funds. In total, the organization owed D.C. $313,000 as of Thursday.

This news comes at a time of internal dysfunction at the DNC, as calls for Chairman Ken Martin’s resignation grow louder as the committee is already $18.5 million in debt, still reeling from both a New York Times report detailing a paranoia-driven, phone-throwing outburst by Martin in July, as well as news of a staffer being scammed out of nearly $29,000 by an email from someone pretending to be Martin. It really couldn’t get much worse, especially with massively consequential midterm elections less than three months away. This recent string of events does not inspire hope.

“The question is not whether or not Ken should go,” Leaders We Deserve President David Hogg told The New Republic late last month. “The question is how much longer can we afford to keep him, because this is not sustainable.”