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ATLANTA (CN) — Four activists convicted on federal charges of conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents asked the 11th Circuit on Wednesday to overturn their convictions, which they say violate the First Amendment.
Attorneys for African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) founder Omali Yeshitela, APSP members Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel, and Augustus Romain Jr., the leader of a Georgia-based spinoff organization called Black Hammer, told the three-judge panel their clients were unfairly prosecuted for their political speech.
Prosecutors accused the defendants of knowingly helping the Kremlin spread misinformation and sow political discord. Attorneys for the defendants have said their clients shared many of the same goals as a Russian organization but were not acting under Russian control.
“There’s no allegation that defendants’ peaceful protests and the publication of their newspaper The Burning Spear jeopardized national security in any respect,” Chicago-based attorney Leonard Goodman, who represents Hess, Yeshitela and Nevel, told the panel. “The Supreme Court has made clear political speech receives the highest level of protection. Nevertheless, the district court found that speech directed by Russia rises to the level of acts. There’s no legal basis for that.”
According to the government, the defendants carried out actions in the U.S. between 2015 and 2022 on behalf of the Russian government and received money and support from Alexander Ionov, the president of the Moscow-based group Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia. Ionov, an asset of Russia’s Federal Security Service, used the defendants’ organizations to promote Russian views on politics and oppose U.S. policy in the Ukraine war.
At Ionov’s request, the APSP— which focuses on Black empowerment and the effort to obtain reparations for slavery— drafted a 2015 petition to the United Nations accusing the U.S. of committing genocide against African people. The government has said the defendants acted under Russian direction and received about $7,000 to stage protests across four cities in 2016 promoting the petition.
The defendants continued undertaking actions at Ionov’s direction over the next six years, including by carrying out protests at CNN and the Georgia State Capitol in support of Russia.
But attorney Todd Murgo of O’Brien Hatfield, who represents Romain, insisted Wednesday that none of the defendants took any course of action which would have required registering with the government.
Murgo said the defendants had “longstanding beliefs” and “just so happened to collaborate with the Russian co-conspirators.”
“They were simply demonstrating and publishing thoughts and opinions that just happened to be critical,” Murgo told the panel.
U.S. Circuit Judge Jill Pryor, a Barack Obama appointee, immediately took issue with the argument. “But they were doing that under the direction and control of the Russian organization. That’s the crime," she said.
A Florida jury acquitted Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel of acting as agents of a foreign government, an offense Romain was not charged with. Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel were sentenced to three years’ probation for conspiring to act as agents of a foreign government. Romain was sentenced to five years’ probation.
Justice Department attorney Joseph Minta asked the panel to uphold the convictions, arguing the jury could have found the defendants guilty without ever analyzing the content of their speech.
“If they were doing it at the direction and control of a foreign government, the elements of the offense were satisfied,” Minta said.
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor seemed swayed by the government’s arguments. The George W. Bush appointee repeatedly pointed out that the offense of failing to register with the Justice Department as an agent of a foreign government is “content-neutral.”
U.S. Circuit Judge Andrew Brasher also reminded counsel the law at issue criminalizes failing to register as a foreign agent, not supporting Russia. The Trump appointee said there was a “disconnect” between what the defendants were actually prosecuted for and their speech activity.
“No one is saying they can’t disseminate pro-Russian propaganda if they want to,” Brasher said. “They’ve just gotta register to do it.”
The panel did not indicate when it would rule.
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