Charges dropped against peace activist who laughed at Sessions

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: A peace activist who laughed at then US Senator Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing to become US attorney general will no longer be prosecuted on charges of disrupting a session of Congress and demonstrating at the Capitol.

The US Attorney for the District of Columbia filed court papers on Monday, notifying a judge his office was dropping its case against Desiree Fairooz, a children’s librarian.

Fairooz had faced up to six months in jail and a US$ 1,000 fine if she were convicted on both charges at trial.

She belonged to Code Pink, an anti-war group that often stages protests against politicians. The group accused federal prosecutors of overreaching and wasting money on the case.

“We hope they will scale back this massive overreach and that the success we just saw in Desiree’s case will encourage more people to protest in the halls of Congress and on the streets,” Code Pink said in a statement on Tuesday.

A representative for the US Department of Justice declined to comment and no one at the office of USAttorneyJessieLiuoftheDistrict of Columbia could be reached late on Tuesday.

Fairooz laughed during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January, after a lawmaker’s asserted Sessions treated all Americans equally.

It was at the confirmation hearing for Sessions, who was then a Republican senator from Alabama and was later confirmed to become US attorney general.

Fairooz shouted, ‘ This man is evil, pure evil’ as police led her away.

A jury found Fairooz guilty in May of disrupting a session of Congress and demonstrating on Capitol grounds.

But a judge for the District of Columbia Superior Court overturned the guilty verdict in July and ordered a new trial. — Reuters