Jeff Sessions clearly has a fragile ego. So much so that he is allowing the Justice Department to waste valuable time and resources to put a woman on trial who simply laughed at him during his confirmation hearing in January. Desiree Fairooz, who will go on trial for a second time in November, had already been found guilty by a jury in July for disorderly and disruptive conduct. A judge tossed that conviction—citing that the government’s case against Fairooz based on her laughter alone, was not enough to merit a conviction.
Desiree Fairooz, a woman taken into custody after she laughed during Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing, will go to trial in November for a second time.
Fairooz and her lawyer rejected a plea deal offered by the government in which she would have pleaded guilty to one of two charges in exchange for the government recommending a sentence of time served, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall said in D.C. Superior Court on Friday.
Good for Fairooz for refusing to plead guilty for something so utterly ridiculous. One would think that the Justice Department would have better things to do and other crimes to prosecute. After all, Jeff Sessions has spent the last eight months doing his absolute best to convince us that violent crime is on the rise and is plaguing America—he’s lying, by the way. So one would think inappropriate fits of laughter wouldn’t really be a priority for the attorney general. Except for the fact that everyone in this administration has proven that they are petty, hyper-sensitive and have to lash out at anyone and everyone who offends them.
[During the confirmation hearing, while] introducing Sessions, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) claimed his colleague had a “clear and well-documented” record of “treating all Americans equally under the law.” Fairooz found that laughable. So she laughed.
A rookie Capitol Hill police officer who had never made an arrest nor guarded a congressional hearing before then decided to take Fairooz into custody. Fairooz objected, at first questioning why she was being arrested, then voicing her opposition to Sessions as multiple officers escorted her from the room.
Though the government originally claimed that it was her laughter that was reason enough to find Fairooz guilty, she was originally charged with “disorderly and disruptive conduct and demonstrating inside the Capitol.” And even though this means convening another jury, finding witnesses, wasting court time, the government wants yet another opportunity to get a conviction.
Even if she’s convicted yet again, Fairooz is highly unlikely to receive any substantial punishment, though jail time is theoretically possible. Two fellow demonstrators who went to trial alongside her received suspended sentences, meaning they wouldn’t have to serve jail time unless they violated certain conditions.
Does Jeff Sessions know that a good chunk of the population is actually laughing at him (or at least at the idea that he is anyway fit to run the Justice Department)? Desiree Fairooz just got caught in public doing it. Trump sycophants are quick to call liberals sensitive snowflakes. But with this asinine stunt to repeatedly punish Fairooz, who’s the snowflake now?