When Kat Abughazaleh, a former extremism reporter-turned-Democratic congressional candidate, learned that the U.S. government had brought an indictment against her last week, it felt “wild” and “weird.” But given that President Donald Trump is in office, it was not particularly surprising.
“It was surreal to see my name on there, but this was the type of stuff that we, disinformation reporters, had been warning people about for years, had been warning Democrats about for years,” Abughazaleh, who is running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, currently held by retiring Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, told HuffPost by phone Monday. “It was part of the reason I wanted to run for Congress — to fight against these types of political stunts and attacks on our First Amendment rights.”
A grand jury indicted Abughazaleh and five others, including two other political candidates, on felony charges last month, accusing them of conspiring to impede a vehicle driven by a federal immigration agent and allegedly attempting to stop it from entering Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Broadview facility in Chicago on Sept. 26. Prosecutors claim the federal agent was forced to drive extremely slowly to avoid injuring protesters, and that Abughazaleh and her alleged co-conspirators banged on the windows of the government vehicle, crowded in front of it, and pushed it. They further allege that someone eventually scratched the word “PIG” onto the car before breaking the vehicle’s side mirror and rear windshield wiper.
