PV International Desk : A series of trials over a violent Inauguration Day protest has turned into a long-term battle of wits between the Justice Department and a grassroots political opposition network that calls itself “the resistance.”
The stand-off entered a new phase last week when a fresh trial started for four of the more than 160 people initially charged with property destruction and conspiracy to engage in a riot.
This nationwide activist network, calling itself the Defend J20 Resistance movement, has offered defendants free lodging and legal coordination. The movement claimed an early victory late last year when a jury acquitted the first six defendants.
The government has since dropped charges against most defendants and is focused on a remaining group of 58 — claiming it has stronger evidence this time.
