Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is Abby Martin. This is the audio version of each episode of the Empire Files hosted on Telesaur English. You can watch every episode at the Empire Files. TV.

They shoot!

Since Trump took power, activists are seen a disturbing escalation in state repression against civil liberties.

Most notably, the case of the J20, where over 200 protesters and journalists mass arrested at Trump's inauguration are now facing years, even up to decades in prison.

To learn more, I spoke to lawyer Mara Verhaden Hilliard,

head of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund,

who's been defending protest rights for over 20 years.

I started by asking her to explain the details of this shocking case.

So on the first day of the Trump administration, on inauguration day,

there were tens of thousands of people who came to Washington to

demonstrate their opposition to the incoming administration.

And that included a massive rally along the parade route itself, where at large portions

the demonstrators against Trump completely outnumbered those who came to support him.

But additionally, there were demonstrations that took place away from the parade room.

And there was a march that was marching through the streets of Washington, D.C., against the Trump

administration.

Now, some people who were marching alongside that group broke windows, engaged in property destruction.

But what the police did is they followed that march, by their own account, the police account

as they followed the march for approximately half an hour in which they witnessed people

undertaking acts of property destruction or criminal acts. But they didn't arrest the people when they saw them doing that. They

waited till an arbitrary time and place and did a dragnet arrest, a mass encirclement

of 200 plus people who were in proximity and swept them all up and charged them all with

...