I went to jail three times because I report on Republicans and they don’t like it. Plain and simple.
I’ll soon write more about the first and last arrests, but today I want to share publicly – for the first time – what Ryan Zinke’s Press Secretary, Heather Swift, did to me (with big assists from her staff and Republican Staff on the House Natural Resources Committee.)
First, some background on me though.
Many of you will remember me from the early days of DailyKos. In fact, it was DailyKos and Howard Dean that set me on this path in 2003. Before then, I read the New York Times and thought I was pretty informed. How wrong I was!
With Howard Dean came word of “bloggers” and TalkingPointsMemo and Atrios and, yes, DailyKos. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the moment I signed up for a DailyKos account, I launched an alter-ego existence as a gonzo-journalist.
I’ve often said to people that in at least one respect, I’m kind of weird. Most people like to swim through life with the current. They like to make friends and get along with people. I’m different. At least professionally. As a journalist, I don’t think I’m doing my job unless I’m pissing off powerful people by exposing their hypocrisy and lies. And I absolutely enjoy holding them accountable. And for most of my time as a journalist, the powerful people trying their best to dodge accountability have been Republicans.
A note about the term “journalist”: Some folks will quibble with me describing myself as such. I’m too partisan they will say. Or I’m paid by partisans they will say. I’m unprofessional, they will say. Well… This is what I say: So long as you allow Fox News into your tribe, decrying my partisanship is laughable. And so long as you allow DailyCaller and National Review and Free Beacon and other right-wing welfare recipients into your tribe, you can stop clutching your pearls over who pays me. And finally, I have this to say about professionalism: If being professional means standing politely and writing down the lies Republicans tell you is professional, I’ll proudly admit unprofessionalism. I won’t allow myself or my readership/viewers to be disrespected.
And here’s the thing: I’ve been pretty damned good at my job. I have made many Republicans mad at me. Very, very mad at me.
I’m pretty certain that’s why American Bridge hired me in early 2018, and I was overjoyed. Much of my previous work was effective, but I didn’t have any institutional support. (That sentence can also be written as “I didn’t have a paycheck.”) Going to work for the pre-eminent PAC that was more or less aligned with my progressive values was an extraordinary turn of fortune. The best part: I was hired to do exactly what I do! I was hired to go hold Republicans accountable.
Early on, everything was going great. What I didn’t realize is that I was earning some hatred.
I think this video — featuring two high-profile 2018 candidates (Marsha Blackburn and Ron Desantis) and several Republican leaders — set the table for what was coming. Between Facebook and Twitter ~10 million people watched. In a tough election year for Republicans, this kind of thing needed to be dealt with.
So on March 15, 2018, Ryan Zinke, the famously corrupt Secretary of the Department of the Interior, had just wrapped his appearance before the House Natural Resources Committee. I introduced myself and tried to ask him a couple of questions.
I think this is a good place to let Republicans tell you what happened next. (Each of these statements was given under penalty of perjury to the United States Capitol Police.)
Here’s what Heather Swift, the supposed victim told police:
And here’s what Swift’s colleague at the Department of Interior (and witness against me at my trial), Amanda Castor, told the police (remember, this statement was given under penalty of perjury):
Also under penalty of perjury, this is what Tyler Dever said happened (I especially like the way he made himself into a sort of heroic badass, saving the Secretary from me, a “threat to public safety”):
The responding officer took Heather Swift’s complaint and I was charged with simple assault. Importantly, Ms. Swift pressed to have me jailed (rather than receiving an appearance ticket) so that she could secure a “stay-away” order. (Those things are very convenient for Republicans that don’t like intrepid reporters asking inconvenient questions).
So I was cuffed, arrested, and sent to jail. I begged and begged the police to look at the video I captured, explaining to them that this was a political hit and that the video would prove each of the Republican witnesses was lying in order to smear me and the organization I worked for. The police refused. They seized my camera (and its video), and I spent the rest of the day and overnight in a small shared cell. No blankets or pillows were provided and the two bunk beds were literally sheet-metal trays fastened to the wall. There were no mattresses. Entertainment consisted of a fellow prisoner in the cell across from mine standing and fondling his penis, which was unnaturally large. OK, so that wasn’t entertainment at all, but rather really drove home how our country deals with its mentally ill population.
Anyway, while I was in jail, Ms. Swift passed the time by reaching out to her friends at the DailyCaller to describe her terrifying experience (no fucking link for them):
Heather Swift, press secretary Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, was leaving a meeting with the House Committee on Natural Resources when she was allegedly assaulted by an American Bridge staffer, who reportedly pushed Swift violently while lunging after her boss.
According to the official, Swift engaged the liberal operative verbally, attempting to protect her boss, but the American Bridge staffer pushed back harder.
[...]
Swift told The Daily Caller in an exclusive statement that the American Bridge staffer was much bigger than her and acted like a “lunatic.”
First of all I want to thank the Capitol Police for their quick action and professionalism.
It happened so fast. It was terrifying and I still can’t believe it happened. He is a big guy. He came up behind me fast, aggressive and very physical. Who knows what this lunatic was thinking?
Since joining the Trump Administration I’ve received harassing and threatening tweets, emails, phone calls, and letters (to include death threats) but being physically targeted and assaulted brings it to another level. This violent action only strengthens my desire to serve my president and my country.
Democrats claim to support women but they allow their operatives to assault women. They need to immediately denounce this type of violent behavior.
Interior communications director Laura Rigas says she is “extremely irate” that a female member of the Department of the Interior “was physically assaulted today by a Democrat staffer from the PAC American Bridge.”
Rigas’ statement continued:
“These politically motivated, personal, written, verbal, and now physical attacks against Trump administration officials must stop. Violent physical attacks have no place in politics, at work, or in our society. The perpetrator has been arrested and charged, and we thank the Capitol Police for their quick action.”
The press reports began with DailyCaller, but didn’t end there. Breitbart kicked it up a notch, reporting that I pushed Swift to the ground. I wonder where they got that from? I wonder if it could have been Ms. Swift?
U.S. Capitol Police arrested a man on Thursday for allegedly assaulting a communications team member from the Department of the Interior following a budget hearing on Capitol Hill where DOI Secretary Ryan Zinke was testifying.
Following the House Committee on Natural Resources hearing, the man, who identified himself as a reporter with American Bridge 21st Century, reportedly pushed DOI Press Secretary Heather Swift to the ground in pursuit of Zinke.
Swift told Breitbart News she is grateful to law enforcement and shocked by the incident.
And from there, again, while I remained jailed (I didn’t get out until the next day at 4 PM), the story moved to Washington Post, CNN and multitudes of additional publications. Several editorials were written decrying the violence seeping into politics, using the accusations against me as Exhibit #1. Sean Spicer and every GOP communications staffer in DC retweeted links to articles.
(You know how these things work, right? There are email lists of communications professionals and other “influencers” on both sides of the aisle. Many times, when you see certain stories “trend” or “go viral”, it’s because links were circulated on these email lists made up of professionals whose job it is to cultivate and grow their followers.)
Meanwhile, American Bridge had no idea what to think. After all, I was hired for my reputation as and “edgy” reporter willing to ask the questions Republicans didn’t want to answer and to keep calling them out plainly when they lied. I cannot emphasize enough how unique that is in Washington DC. It’s simply not done and people aren’t used to seeing it. And without the video, there was no way I could show my bosses what actually happened.
I was put on paid leave and Bridge hired a top-flight lawyer to defend me in the criminal case. Eventually the news-cycle passed me by, which was a very good thing as far as American Bridge was concerned. They, totally understandably did not want to be in the news for one of their staffers assaulting a female Republican staffer, especially as #MeToo and #TimesUp and #BelieveWomen reached critical mass. So I was ordered not to talk about the incident.
Eventually we got the video back from the police. Would you like to see it? Let me apologize in advance for how banal and unexciting it is, but here you go:
So this is what really happened:
I waited for the hearing to conclude, then approached Secretary Zinke. Two days earlier he had given Senate testimony and I caught him in the hallway as he left and asked him to explain how he still had a job after spending tens of thousands of dollars on a pair of doors for his office and helicopter rides around the Bears Ears Monument. His staff freaked out, Capitol Police intervened, and I was never able to get an answer from him. But he answered similar question in his House appearance, and they sounded pretty satisfactory to me. So I shook his hand and apologized for my earlier questions. But I had additional questions. Zinke turned to go, and I followed step-wise, the way one does when moving through a crowd in a small space. Heather Swift intercepted me and asked who I was with. I answered honestly, and she sneered that I wasn’t real media. Whatever. I realized Zinke was moving into the Committee space and if I was going to have a chance to ask my questions, I needed to get out to the hallway elevators. As I turned toward the public exit, Swift stepped aggressively from my right to my left, and swung her hip into me. Simultaneously, I said something like, “You don’t push me” while she said something like “Stop pushing”. I don’t think she realized I was filming the entire time, and thank God I was. Because the video shows her moving from my right to my left while holding a coffee and a phone in the same hand. The video is smooth — it’s pretty compelling evidence that I didn’t “come up behind her fast” like a “lunatic”, or even touch her at all. And it certainly demonstrates that not only was I not “shoving people” or “barrelling” anyone over, but I wasn’t even calling out questions to Ryan Zinke or behaving in any way that could be described as aberrant or alarming at all.
Anyway, needless to say, this video was put before the judge at court. Swift and Castor testilied against me, and each were unable to explain their witness statements vs. the video.
On the other hand, I had no trouble at all explaining their witness statements. They wanted to send this very effective reporter to jail so they could smear me and my organization. And their plan worked to perfection.
It turns out that when you are arrested for assaulting the spokesperson for the Department of Interior, a lot of stories are written.
When you are acquitted — even when the judge says he finds you “very credible” and Swift not at all credible — well… Only one story was written. In what amounts to a niche journal. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate E&E News beyond words, but it sure would have been nice if Washington Post or CNN decided to follow up.
So I mentioned three arrests in the title of this diary.
In each of the other two, circumstances were very similar to what I’ve described here, except int he first one, the cops beat me up a bit, and the third one is still working its way through the criminal justice system. I thought I’d write about all three, but I’m realizing that such a diary would be excessively long and each arrest deserves its own treatment. So look for another diary tomorrow, and another on Monday (each will have video).
Before I leave you though, I need to share that after my third arrest, American Bridge let me go. It was clear that not only had Republicans effectively hacked our efforts to hold them accountable — all they need to do is coordinate lies to have me arrested, and then run to the media while I’m in jail. Moreover, both Bridge and I realized that one of these days my luck was going to run out. My camera would malfunction and I wouldn’t have evidence of my innocence… or the feral republicans at campaign rallies would do something to truly cause me physical harm… The job was just to dangerous to be sustained, at least when it came to campaign events. You cannot go and intentionally be a skunk at republican picnics.
So yeah, right now I’m unemployed again and I’m not sure what my next steps are. I’d like to get back up to the Hill — perhaps as an unofficial (or official) DailyKos reporter. But I also need to mae a living, and right now I’m on the hook for my Las Vegas attorneys.
If you’d like to help out, my paypal email is stark.m -at- gmail -dot- com.
And before I go, a parting gift:
