DOJ drops prosecution of woman who laughed at Jeff Sessions
The Department of Justice has dropped a case that was, indeed, a laughing matter.
Desiree Ali-Fairooz was scheduled to stand for her second trial on Nov. 13 after being arrested for what appeared to be laughing during Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing in January. Ali-Fairooz tweeted she had received notice that her case was being dropped on Monday afternoon.
Just received this, “Governments Notice of Nolle Prosequi” What a relief! Guess they’ve got enough “laughing” matters to deal with!
— Desiree Fairooz (@desireefairooz) November 6, 2017
Ali-Fairooz, an activist with the organization Code Pink, was convicted of disrupting Congress when she let out a laugh while reacting to Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby that Sessions’ record of “treating all Americans equally under the law is clear and well-documented.” She was found guilty in May, and was told she faced up to six months in jail.
In July, Chief Judge Robert E. Morin of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia tossed the verdict, and scheduled a re-trial saying that the government had wrongly argued that a laugh alone was sufficient cause for the verdict.
Ali-Fairooz’s arresting officer, Katherine Coronado, was in her second week on the job during Sessions’ confirmation hearing, and at the time had never conducted an arrest, nor worked a congressional hearing, HuffPostreported.