Another protester escorted out of Sessions hearing. Her original offense appeared to be simply laughing. pic.twitter.com/p6lWzBVFRW
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) January 10, 2017
One of the most surreal scenes of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing was when protestors in KKK-like costumes were escorted out of the chambers. Another would be Cory Booker, a sitting U.S. Senator, testifying against Sessions, then a current U.S. Senator. However, beating them both on the weirdness scale was the woman who was escorted out — as show in the above clip — and later arrested for laughing (and then calling Sessions evil) while Sessions was answering questions.
According to the Huffington Post, although the woman, Code Pink activist Desiree Fairooz, was arrested by a rookie cop who had never made an arrest or worked a Congressional hearing, prosecutors are still pursuing a case.
Fairooz was seated in the back of the room, and her laugh did not interrupt Shelby’s introductory speech. But, according to the government, the laugh amounted to willful “disorderly and disruptive conduct” intended to “impede, disrupt, and disturb the orderly conduct” of congressional proceedings. The government also charged her with a separate misdemeanor for allegedly parading, demonstrating or picketing within a Capitol, evidently for her actions after she was being escorted from the room.
Fairooz said during the trial that she laughed reflexively at Sen. Richard Shelby’s claim that Sessions had a record of treating all Americans equal, but she had not intended to disrupt the proceedings.
Fairooz is being tried alongside two of the KKK-clad protestors, who are also claiming they did not disrupt proceedings because the session had not officially been opened when they were taken out.
(Via Huffington Post)