Twin Falls: First amendment experts' responses to Idaho US Attorney were "swift and severe"

The story is a long way from being dead especially after the Idaho US Attorney Wendy Olson issued a threatening press statement about the case that took weeks to see the light of day because (we can only assume) the details went against the narrative officials have been portraying about the joys of multiculturalism being forced on Twin Falls, Idaho by the US State Department and its contractor, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants with hundreds of refugees being placed there in recent years.

Michele Bachmann
Former Rep. and Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann also weighed in suggesting that after being given their due process, deportation for refugees who commit crimes is in order. (Rarely happens)

Legal experts pulled no punches in excoriating Olson as reported by Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily who begins his latest report with a summary of what allegedly happened:

Reaction to threatening comments from President Obama’s U.S. attorney in Idaho following the release of two Muslim boys accused of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl have been swift and severe.

Wendy J. Olson, the U.S. attorney for Idaho, indicated in a statement Friday that Idahoans who spread “false or inflammatory information” about the alleged Muslim perpetrators may be subject to prosecution. The boys accused are ages 14, 10 and 7, and their families have been evicted from the Fawnbrook Apartments in Twin Falls, where the assault allegedly took place.

The two older boys are immigrants from Sudan and the youngest is from Iraq. They are believed to be refugees*** but the government has yet to say exactly how they entered the country, only that they have come “within the last two years.”

The Olson statement that is drawing fire from First Amendment advocates is as follows:

“The spread of false information or inflammatory or threatening statements about the perpetrators or the crime itself reduces public safety and may violate federal law.”

She made the comment after some websites published erroneous information that the girl was “gang raped” at “knifepoint” by “Syrian refugees.”

While the boys likely are Muslim refugees, they are not Syrian. No knife was found at the crime scene.

While the girl may indeed have been “raped” – as reports of one boy urinating inside her mouth have yet to be debunked – she was not “gang-raped.”

First amendment attorneys contacted by WND left nothing to the imagination in their sweeping condemnation of the Idaho U.S. attorney appointed by Obama in 2010.

I’m not going to tell you what the attorneys said because I want you to read it all!  They pulled no punches! Click here for the rest of the story.
We have been writing about Twin Falls since early 2015, click here for our archive.
*** For inquisitive reporters, there is one person who knows whether the alleged abusers from Sudan and Iraq are refugees resettled in Idaho or elsewhere (and who might have moved to Idaho) and that is Jan Reeves.  Reeves likely knows where the evicted families are now living as well.  Reeves is an Obama-designated “Champion of Change” and, as the state refugee coordinator, has been calling the shots on who goes to Idaho for 25 years.  (In Idaho, a Wilson-Fish state, the state government has no say in how the program is run, Reeves runs it.)

Legal expert: Idaho US Attorney comments threaten free speech rights

The Idaho controversy surrounding the alleged sexual assault (by three boys from Sudan and Iraq) of a 5 year old Twin Falls girl just keeps growing—now even to the Washington Post.
See this very informative column by Eugene Volokh*** who first gives the facts as we know them about the controversy, excerpts the written press statement by US Attorney Wendy Olson (see our post yesterday), and then says this (emphasis is mine). Hat tip: Paul

This, it seems to me, goes beyond calling for accuracy (and trying to deter threats, which are indeed criminally punishable). The prosecutor — a prosecutor backed by the might of the federal government — is not just condemning “threatening statements.” She is equally condemning “inflammatory” statements “about the perpetrators or the crime,” as well as “the spread of false information.”

Eugene_Volokh
Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law Professor

There is no First Amendment exception for “inflammatory” statements; and even false statements about matters of public concern, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held, are an inevitable part of free debate. While deliberate lies about particular people may lead to criminal punishment in some states that have carefully crafted “criminal libel” statutes, that would be under state law, not federal law; and though Idaho still has an old criminal libel law, it is almost never used, and is likely unconstitutionally drafted given modern First Amendment standards. Moreover, honest mistakes on matters of public concern are often constitutionally protected, especially against criminal punishment.

The federal prosecutor surely knows how to speak carefully and precisely about what very limited sorts of speech she can prosecute. Yet she chose to equally threaten federal prosecution not just for the punishable true threats — or for the deliberate lies that may be punished under state but not federal law — but also for an unspecified range of “inflammatory … statements about the perpetrators or the crime itself,” as well as for “the spread of false information” (with no limitation on the spread of deliberate lies).

It looks like an attempt to chill constitutionally protected speech through the threat of federal prosecution.

Please read the whole thing!
A commenter to Volokh’s piece, David Behar, says he filed this complaint against Olson:

Executive Office for United States Attorneys
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 2242
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Office of Bar Counsel
525 West Jefferson
P. O. Box 895
Boise, Idaho 83701
(208) 334-4500
Fax: (208) 334-2764
www.isb.idaho.gov ;

RE: U.S. Attorney for Idaho Wendy J. Olson, Washington Group IV, 800 Park Blvd., Suite 600, Boise, ID 83712, Phone: (208) 334-1211, Fax: (208) 334-9375 ; Your 3.6 (a)

Dear Madam or Sir:
US Attorneys are subject to the discipline of the state bar where they practice.

The above lawyer stated in the attached release, “The spread of false information or inflammatory or threatening statements about the perpetrators or the crime itself reduces public safety and may violate federal law. We have seen time and again that the spread of falsehoods about refugees divides our communities.”

It is posted here:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-id/pr/us-attorney-sta…enforcement-response

Investigate, and discipline this lawyer for violating your Rule, for using her office to intimidate dissenters from her political views.

 
***Eugene Volokh teaches free speech law, religious freedom law, church-state relations law, a First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic, and tort law, at UCLA School of Law, where he has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, and a seminar on firearms regulation policy.
Follow @volokhc
 

Idaho: Obama appointed US Attorney attempts to stifle free speech relating to sex assault case

Update June 28th: More legal experts BLAST Olson, here.
Update June 27th:  Legal expert weighs in with why Olson is wrong, here.
And, she says “the spread of falsehoods about refugees divides our communities.”
Ms. Olson! the placement (in secrecy) of third world refugees in towns that do not want them divides communities!

Wendy Olson
Wendy Olson, US Attorney for Idaho, steps into sexual assault media controversy, fanning the flames even further!

See the latest in the ever growing and expanding controversy from Twin Falls, Idaho about the Sudanese and Iraqi boys who were charged with sexually assaulting a little girl in their apartment complex laundry room over three weeks ago.
We would not be talking about this now if vigilant Idaho citizens hadn’t demanded transparency and action from authorities there.
Frankly, if authorities had been forthcoming in the first place, the so-called rumors would not have gotten legs.
Here is Leo Hohmann with the latest news at World Net Daily (I am quoted in the story about Olson’s clear threat to infringe on the free speech rights of individuals and the media!):

The Obama-appointed U.S. attorney for Idaho has taken the highly unusual step of intervening in a local criminal case involving an alleged sexual assault by juvenile Muslim migrants and threatened the community and media with federal prosecution if they “spread false information or inflammatory statements about the perpetrators.”

WND and other news outlets have reported on the case involving three juvenile boys, two from Sudan and one from Iraq, who allegedly sexually assaulted a 5-year-old special-needs girl in the laundry room of the Fawnbrook Apartments in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Here is a small portion of what Eric Holder’s pick for Idaho US Attorney said in her press release of late last week.  This is a very clear attempt to silence anyone anywhere (not just in Twin Falls) who might speak critically about our refugee admissions policy.

“The spread of false information or inflammatory or threatening statements about the perpetrators or the crime itself reduces public safety and may violate federal law. We have seen time and again that the spread of falsehoods about refugees divides our communities. I urge all citizens and residents to allow Mr. Loebs and Chief Kingsbury and their teams to do their jobs.”

You must continue reading to learn about Olson’s pro-refugee, pro-Muslim bias on display in the run-up to the Idaho trial of an Uzbek refugee on terror charges just last year (he was found guilty btw).  She fretted in advance of the trial and held a meeting with refugee and Muslim advocates to be sure that they were ready for an anti-Muslim backlash in the state during the trial.

Why was it so important for everyone on the pro-refugee side to keep this story under wraps?

It is because the resettlement contractors, the businesses looking for cheap labor, the Leftists looking for more Democrat voters, invested small town elected officials, and naive do-gooders have spent years building an image of refugees as angelic people. Some may be wonderful, deserving immigrants, but some definitely are not!  Because they are so invested in the myth (in the story they have created), any case like this that exposes the lie must be hidden from public view.
How many more cases are out there like the one in the Twin Falls laundry room that have been kept sealed from public view, or dropped altogether through out America?  This makes you wonder doesn’t it!
BTW, her future as Idaho’s US Attorney depends on whether Hillary or Trump win in November.  Remember that!

Boys in Idaho sexual assault case released from custody

Here is the latest, including more on CAIR (more concerned with the “anti-Muslim” angle to the story than for the little girl’s well being) , at World Net Daily last night. (Emphasis is mine)

The two Muslim migrant boys from Sudan who were arrested last week on charges of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl in Idaho were released into the custody of their parents following a hearing Thursday afternoon, WND has learned.

Jan Reeves
For reporters wishing to find out more about what the heck is going on, this is the man you should call. Jan Reeves (an Obama designated Champion of Change) has been calling the shots on refugees going to the state of Idaho for 25 years. He probably won’t tell you a thing, but he knows who these kids are and where they came from. The Idaho Office for Refugees is a ‘non-profit’ group largely funded by US taxpayers. http://www.idahorefugees.org/contact-us.html

They were reportedly released from the Snake River Juvenile Detention Center in Twin Falls pending their next hearing.

According to witnesses on the scene, the boys’ families were seen smiling and hugging after the hearing ended shortly before 3 p.m. Thursday.

“They were waving their arms to the heavens, smiling and throwing their arms around each other,” an eyewitness outside the detention center told WND.

The two Sudanese boys, ages 10 and 14, were reportedly ordered by the court to have no contact with the victim, a 5-year-old special-needs girl, whom they allegedly assaulted in the laundry room of their apartment complex on June 2. They were not arrested until late last week. [Would they have been arrested if citizens hadn’t spoken up?—ed].

A third boy, age 7, was also involved but was never arrested. The younger boys allegedly urinated on the girl and one of them inappropriately touched her but the extent of that violation is not known. The case has been sealed by the prosecutor, which is standard procedure in juvenile offenses.

The older boy, 14, allegedly filmed the entire incident.

The two older boys are from Sudan and the 7-year-old is from Iraq.

The boys and their families have been evicted from the Fawnbrook Apartments where the incident allegedly took place.

There is much more, continue reading here and see what experts say about the acts the boys are alleged to have subjected the little girl to.
And, go here for our previous coverage.
In one week RRW will be 9 years old and in those years our ‘crimes’ category has amassed 1,976 posts before this one!  There are stories about rapes, murders, terrorism, theft, and assorted other fraud perpetrated by refugees we “welcomed” to America cataloged there.

CAIR says investigate sexual assault in Twin Falls, Idaho; case is a lightning rod

This is what CAIR Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said this morning on CAIR’s facebook page:

3 hrs ·

‪#‎CAIR‬: Idaho prosecutor denies Syrian refugees gang-raped girl (Reuters)

Anti-Muslim agitators and those opposed to resettlement of refugees from the Syrian civil war nevertheless seized on the incident to buttress their arguments for shutting down a refugee center in Twin Falls to prevent entry by displaced Syrians…

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the Idaho sexual assault should be fully investigated but added the case had become a lightning rod for anti-Muslim, and anti-refugee sentiments.

“These two forms of hostility seem to be overlapping and reinforcing each other,” he said.

The families of the boys who are alleged to have sexually assaulted a five year old girl in Twin Falls have received eviction notices from the landlord of the Fawnbrook Apartments.  BTW, this Idaho Statesman story does admit one of the boys touched the girl and it is described as a criminal act.  (See eviction letter here)
See also, several updates at the World Net Daily story, here, about the case (including new photo).