Story thread · 2 reports / 2 sources

Trump DHS is using a Civil War-era statute to arrest protestors for conspiracy

alternet.org · 8dShare

Protesters are being arrested by President Donald Trump's Department of Homeland Security, a new report from National Public Radio detailed. Treasure Thoreson, a Minneapolis special education teacher, along with 14 others, has been charged with "conspiracy to impede federal agents" because they were using "blockades" outside of the Whipple Federal Building, where ICE is headquartered. "The charges against Thoreson are part of an escalating trend," the report said, after reviewing court records from the last five years. The analysis compared how the federal government is using one specific charge against protesters: " conspiracy to impede or injure an officer , which can carry a sentence of up to six years in federal prison," the report said. NPR claimed that the statute was established during the Civil War and it isn't used often. Since Trump took over, however, more than three dozen people in fewer than 10 cases have been prosecuted using the law. All of them are for protesters of fed

First report: Trump admin dusts off 'Civil War-era law' to punish protesters and 'scare Americans' — rawstory.com, 8d