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A left-wing influencer-turned-Democratic congressional hopeful stormed out of an interview Thursday when she was questioned about the federal charges she faces for impeding an immigration enforcement operation.
Kat Abughazaleh, who is running to replace retiring Illinois’ Ninth Congressional District Rep. Jan Schakowsky, was indicted for her stunt in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, where she and several protesters blocked federal agents outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility on Sept. 26.
The 26-year-old progressive social media personality was faced with footage of the viral protest when she appeared on “The Tara Palmeri Show.”
Video footage captured by others at the anti-ICE demonstration showed Abughazaleh and other activists forming a human chain in front of an ICE vehicle while chanting “Down down with deportation, up up with liberation.”
“When you see that, what do you think right now?” Palmeri asked Abughazaleh.
“You know Tara, once again, this is my first time being federally indicted, like I said. I plan on pleading not guilty, the evidence will come out in court and I plan on winning. Thank you so much for having me,” Abughazaleh said before she logged off the video call.
The interview lasted just under four minutes as Palmeri, who was caught off guard over the abrupt exit, continued talking to Abughazaleh for roughly 20 seconds before realizing her guest had logged out.
“Did she just sign off?” the journalist asked, checking to make sure her guest had disconnected. “OK, she left because I asked her questions about what happened that day.”
Palmeri had earlier pressed Abughazaleh over the allegations in the federal indictment brought by the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Oct. 23, alleging that she carved the word “PIG” into the side of an immigration enforcement vehicle.
Abughazaleh, formerly employed by the liberal watchdog Media Matters, was indicted along with four others on charges of having “conspired … to prevent by force, intimidation, and threat” a federal law enforcement officer from carrying out official duties in a manner seeking “to injure him in his person or property.”
“I’m not speaking to the specifics of anything thats in the indictment right now, but like I said, I do plan on pleading not guilty in court and the evidence will come out in court,” the irritated Congressional prospect said.
The rising Democrat figure and her alleged co-conspirators “physically hindered and impeded” an unidentified officer who was “forced to drive at an extremely slow rate of speed to avoid injuring any of the conspirators” during the protest 12 miles from Downtown Chicago.
While peaceful protests are generally protected under the First Amendment, courts have ruled that blocking traffic or otherwise jeopardizing public safety is subject to criminal charges.
If found guilty, Abughazaleh could face up to 14 years in prison, and throw a wrench into her goals of being elected to Congress.
The Texas native cried that the charges were a ‘political prosecution’ as prosecutors were allegedly trying to “criminalize protest.”
Abughazaleh shared her frustrations with her viewers in a video posted to X Wednesday, asking for viewers to “help,” though she made no reference to donations for any legal defense fund.
“ICE has hit, dragged, thrown, shot with pepper balls and tear-gassed hundreds of protesters, simply because we had the gall to say that masked men coming into our communities, abducting our neighbors and terrorizing us cannot be our new normal,” she said.
English (US)