Tell the DOJ: Drop your bogus charges against Trump protesters!
Petition to Jeff Sessions:
From demanding IP addresses for over 1.3 million visitors to a Trump resistance website to pressuring Facebook to turn over personal account data for thousands of people who merely “liked” a Trump resistance page – but being denied in court for both – the DOJ has repeatedly over-reached in its crusade to unfairly charge anti-Trump protesters for exercising their First Amendment rights. We demand that you immediately drop the riot charges against the almost 200 people swept up and arrested indiscriminately in demonstrations on Inauguration Day.
When a group of over 200 people, including journalists and legal observers, attended a protest of Trump’s inauguration, D.C. police indiscriminately swept them up and arrested them. Now they’re facing up 70 years in prison for taking part in – or even just being near – a political protest.1
Tell the DOJ to drop the bogus riot charges against the J20 protesters.
Trump’s DOJ is trying to throw the book at Trump resisters by charging a random group of over 200 people who attended or participated in an inauguration protest with felony counts of rioting and conspiracy to incite a riot.
Their goal is simple: Criminalize dissent and undermine Americans’ First Amendment right to protest.2 The DOJ is using the DisruptJ20 case as a test of the legal system to see how far they can go. If we can’t stop their overreach here, we can be sure they’ll have more Trump resistance figures in their sights next.
Tell the DOJ: drop the bogus riot charges against the J20 protesters.
At every turn, the DOJ has over stepped its bounds in trying to bring any sort of charges against these anti-Trump protesters. Back in August, they demanded the disruptj20.org website hand over the IP addresses of 1.3 million people who visited the site leading up to Inauguration Day.
Then they asked for a search warrant against Facebook to release the personal data – including friends lists – of Disrupt J20 organizers.
In both cases, the D.C. rejected the DOJ’s requests. But riot charges are still hanging over the heads of almost 200 people.
Tell the DOJ to drop the riot charges against the J20 protesters.