Judge rejects selective prosecution of conservative group

 Daily Wire:

A judge in California threw out charges against two far-right political agitators, saying the federal government engaged in “selective prosecution” by charging right-wing rioters but not the far-left agitators they fought against, and who did the exact same thing.

Robert Rundo and Robert Boman attended a pro-Donald Trump “free speech” rally in Berkeley on April 15, 2017, as members of Rise Against Movement (RAM), a “far-right, white nationalist” group that engaged in violence against left-wing groups like Antifa. One of those groups was By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), which would descend upon right-wing events to shut them down and start fights.

“Antifa and related far-left groups decided they needed to ‘shut this down.’ … They came prepared for violence, bringing weapons including pepper spray, fireworks, knives, and homemade bombs,” Judge Cormac J. Carney of the US District Court for the Central District of California wrote on February 21. “And they used those weapons, as well as their bodies, against Trump supporters and law enforcement.”

But after prosecutors filed an emergency motion to appeal, the Ninth Circuit had one of the right-wingers arrested the next day, February 22. Robert Rundo “is to remain in custody pending resolution of appellant’s motion to stay release pending appeal. No lower court may order his release absent further order of this Court,” the appeals court wrote.

Judge Carney objected to the fact that federal prosecutors charged only right-wing participants, even though left-wing agitators performed identical conduct or worse at the same event—which prosecutors’ own evidence acknowledged.

“No individuals associated with the left, who engaged in anti-far-right speech and violently suppressed the protected speech of Trump supporters, were charged with a federal crime for their part in starting riots at political events. That is textbook viewpoint discrimination,” he wrote. “Most telling in this case is the government’s silence as to why it never pursued a case against a single member of Antifa or related far-left groups with respect to their violent conduct at pro-Trump events.”

“Defendants have established selective prosecution. There is no doubt that the government did not prosecute similarly situated individuals. Antifa and related far-left groups attended the same Trump rallies as Defendants with the expressly stated intent of shutting down, through violence if necessary, protected political speech. At the same Trump rallies that form the basis for Defendants’ prosecution, members of Antifa and related far-left groups engaged in organized violence to stifle protected speech,” he continued.
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This is not the only time we have seen selective view point discrimination against Trump supporters.  Judge Carney is right to say that if both sides are guilty of the same thing then they both should be charged.