Feds charge 4 Americans with "election meddling"

New York Post ^ | 4/21/2023 | NY Post

[FLT-bird]

4 ‘African Socialists’ charged with election meddling for Russia after FIB raided their homes

Four American socialists have been charged with election meddling and spreading Putin’s propaganda after they were arrested in dramatic FBI raids.

The four, are members of the African People’s Socialist Party.

Omali Yeshitela, the group’s chairman was one of the 4 Americans indicted Tuesday for “sowing discord, spreading pro-Russia propaganda and interfering in elections within the United States.”

The DOJ says that the 81-year-old veteran leader of the far-left group conspired along with three others to help Russian efforts to meddle in elections.

Yeshitela has called the charges an “asinine” attack on his organization.

“Russia’s foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights to divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States,” said Assistant AG Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department.

“The department will not hesitate to expose and prosecute those who sow discord and corrupt US elections in service of hostile foreign interests, regardless of whether the culprits are US citizens or foreign individuals abroad,” Olsen said.

Penny Joanne Hess, Jesse Nevel and Augustus Romain Jr. were the others named in the indictment.

Yeshitela has previously denied being a Russian agent.

“It seems to be a lot of BS from what I can see,” a source familiar with the defense told The Post.

“There doesn’t seem to be any actual evidence that they did the actual bidding of Russia.”

[FLT-bird]

In July (2022), prosecutors accused Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov of recruiting political groups in Florida, Georgia and California and directing them to spread pro-Moscow talking points with the backing of the Kremlin.--- NYPost

Again, we aren't talking about the 4 Americans. If the feds want to claim Russians engaged in an influence operation in the US, fine. I assume Russian intel does that sort of thing. I know we do that sort of thing. So if the Russians want to charge some of our US based agents criminally in Russia, fine. The feds are charging 4 Americans here though without providing any proof that they were in the employ of the Russians.

[linMcHlp]

bkmk

[Sooth2222]

"sowing discord"

If "sowing discord" is a crime, why aren't Obama, Biden, most of Washington DC including the CIA and FBI, and the staffs of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS, the New York Times and the Washington Post all behind bars now?

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

We need to see the indictments in order to see what laws these people, MARXIST nuts, I can assure you, reportedly violated.

Piasa is a pretty knowledgeable person re the American Left so I would withhold any judgment about his in formation until later. Opinions are another thing.

[Fedora]

Thanks, I remember Yeshitela being involved in that.

[Fedora]

Yeshitela’s involvement with the reparations movement goes way back, the APSP adopted a reparations platform in 1979 and he attended the first World Tribunal on Reparations in 1982, the same year APSP founded the African National Reparations Organization (ANRO).