AGENDA 21 RADIOO SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 RED SMITH REPORTS ABOUT PETE SANTILLI

Feds Dump Charges Against Malhuer Journalist SantilliEXPLOSIVE!!! RED SMITH reports about the charges by the federal government against reporter PETE SANTILLI in regards to the MALHUER incident.

Tuesday, September 6th U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown agreed to dismiss charges against Internet journalist Peter Santilli. Santilli, who had broadcast daily from the Malhuer Protest in Burns Oregon, was arrested shortly after the illegal stop of protest leader Ammon Bundy’s caravan that lead to the murder of Constitutional Advocate LaVoy Finicum. Federal prosecutors filed a motion seeking to dismiss the charges against Santilli Tuesday afternoon. Federal prosecutors stated “The government has decided that the interests of justice do not support further pursuit of these charges against Santilli.” The trial of Santilli and seven other refuge occupiers was set to begin Wednesday with jury selection in downtown Portland.

Santilli remained steadfast throughout his incarceration that his actions during the Malhuer Protest were lawful and Constitutionally protected by the First Amendment Right to freedom of the press. Santilli’s attorney, Thomas Coan, Santilli’s defense attorney, had also argued that his client’s presence as a journalist at the wildlife refuge was protected by the First Amendment. He said he’d been pushing for the government to dismiss the charges against Santilli. “This is something that we’ve been pushing for, for a long time,” said Coan. “I have always believed that Pete never had any criminal intent in what he did out there … He came out here with the intent to report and to document and to lawfully protest.”