The federal government provided false information in their 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 ICE 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 know that the government’s activities might not be legal.
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