Rebel News fights to free jailed reporters like David Menzies (released on bail after trespassing charges for exposing Mayor Patrick Brown’s hypocrisy), Tommy Robinson (66-day sentence for contempt, denied jury trial despite English common law), and Laura Loomer (arrested in NYC for protesting a Trump-themed play). Anna Slatz faced NYPD brutality during George Floyd protests, held despite press exemptions, while Millie Weaver was detained in Ohio amid unclear burglary charges—both freed through Rebel News’ crowdfunded legal campaigns. Their work underscores how press freedom battles transcend ideology, proving that swift intervention can shield journalists from politically weaponized arrests. [Automatically generated summary]
Hello rebels, bit of a special show today, a recap of the last four or five times we actually redeemed captives, as they would say in the Bible, when we bailed journalists out of jail, fought for their freedom.
It's a best of episode.
This time, the best of us freeing journalists from jail.
I really wish you could see some of the videos here.
They were quite interesting, some of them.
And you can do that becoming a Rebel News Plus subscriber.
It's eight bucks a month.
You get the video version of the podcast.
You also get access to video podcasts by my friends Sheila Gunnreed and David Menzies.
But that's easy to get.
Just go to RebelNews.com and click subscribe.
Anyways, here's today's podcast.
I hope you find it interesting.
Tonight, the Old Testament and the New Testament say the same thing.
It's a good thing to redeem captives.
Today, a special report on the journalists that Rebel News has helped bust out of jail.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say is the government will want to publish it just because it's my bloody right to do so.
Last week, you may have seen the shocking moment when my friend and colleague David Menzies was arrested and put in the back of a crowded police vehicle, no air conditioning, when it was almost 30 degrees out, and made to sit there for the crime, it was not even a real crime, of trespassing on public property.
He wasn't trespassing.
He was there to ask public interest questions of the mayor of Brampton, a sneaky little guy named Patrick Brown, who had been caught red-handed by David sneaking into an ice arena to play hockey with his buddies after having banned all the children from his town from doing so.
So David was there to do real journalism.
But apparently in small town Brampton, it's a bit more corrupt than in a bigger city.
And the police came time after time.
Five squad cars came on Wednesday to arrest David.
Well, we didn't need to bail him out because he was released on his own recognizance, but we are going to court for him.
And it made me think, I was worried they were going to take him to jail.
I think that'll be next.
Patrick Brown likes to abuse his critics.
But it made me think we like to rescue journalists from jeopardy, not just our own journalists.
So today, on this Labor Day Monday, we're going to have a special retrospective on the best moments of Rebel News getting journalists out of jail.
Let's start with the biggest fight we ever fought.
Our friend in the United Kingdom, Tommy Robinson.
Tommy worked for us for a while, but shortly after departing from us, and maybe because of that, he was arrested by a bunch of police, packed in the back of a police wagon, and trotted off to court where he was immediately sent to prison.
Solitary confinement, no less.
It was incredible.
And I think one of the reasons police took that liberty is because he was not working with us.
And we like to roll with lawyers.
Tommy was going solo.
Well, over the course of the next year and a half, I flew over to the United Kingdom not only to report on the story, but to crowdfund the massive legal bill to run an appeal of Tommy's contempt of court conviction and then to fight the second time he was charged with the same thing.
Here, a few highlights of our fight to free Tommy Robinson.
Anzra Levant here for the Rebel.media.
I am at a reception of Tommy's most ardent supporters the night before his hopefully final contempt of court hearing, where he will hopefully finally beat the rap.
Tommy's Contempt Conviction00:14:08
Tommy, it's been 14 months.
I've never heard of a contempt of court case lasting more than a year.
This is unprecedented.
Well, my lawyers believed it would have got kicked out at the last stage for that one reason alone.
It's unfair to have it hanging over me.
It's been hanging over me for a year.
I think that's done on purpose.
You've read the case.
My lawyers are confident.
I've committed no crime.
I've broken no laws.
So I hope I'm clear tomorrow.
I hope that I can get on with my life.
I'm not confident.
I'm not confident that.
My lawyers are.
As you said, this is the seventh time, seventh rape time I've been to court for this case.
I've never heard of that before.
Remember what this case is?
I held up my phone and I read public information.
That's my case.
Yeah, and you had a general public commentary.
You weren't even in the rape gang trial.
You couldn't have spoken about details of the trial because you weren't in there.
And my point, which I find so shocking, is that my charge is that I could have, the perceived chance that I could have caused anxiety to the now convicted Muslim rapists.
And the wording on their charge is that these Muslim rapists must be free to come to court without fear of molestation.
Molestation, that word is so ironic, given that they were.
I'm reading it thinking, are they for real?
Are they told me?
To the media.
Are you aware of the charges I face today?
Are you aware of the charges I face today?
My charge, one of my charges, is for taking a photo of someone walking into court.
If I'm guilty of contempt, every one of you standing here filming me are guilty of contempt.
A journalist just asked me, you'll see the video evidence of all of this.
A journalist just asked me, how are you feeling about your case today?
That is identical to my other charge.
I face three charges.
One of my charges is that by asking the defendant how they feel about their verdict, I can cause them anxiety.
You know what them people convicted me?
The Attorney General is concerned with the perceived anxiety caused.
Journalists, media, it's not me on trial today.
It's your freedom.
Your freedom as journalists.
Your freedom.
Your freedom to ask someone how they feel about their verdict.
Your freedom to take a picture of people on trial.
This would be used test case.
If I'm guilty of contempt, every single one of you who photograph me, who accost me at every one of these trials, are also guilty.
You will hear today, I've gone through this case with my solicitors and my barristers.
You will hear today the evidence.
I have not broke any law.
Read the law.
Journalists, read the law.
A judge does not have power under any section four reporting restriction to prevent publication of information that is already in the public domain.
Tommy Robinson was convicted a second time for contempt of court for the same incident for which he was convicted last time, namely doing journalism on his Facebook live stream from outside a court in Leeds where a Muslim rape gang was on trial.
I thought it was, I actually thought Tommy Robinson would have won today.
I thought that the prosecution's case was laughably weak.
I thought that it was undone by the fact that, well, the trial we know concluded successfully.
The men were convicted.
So how could he have disrupted that trial?
And secondly, what the prosecution piled up into a heap to make up for that lack of real argument, I thought, was that Tommy asked the accused rapists as they walked into trial into court on their judgment day, quote, how do you feel about your verdict?
That's all he said.
No swearing, no blocking or touching them, no insulting them, no assuming their guilt.
And for simply saying, how do you feel about your verdict today?
The judge found that was one of the three grounds upon which he was convicted.
And it was just incredible.
I don't want to call it a stitch-up because I want to acknowledge that I may not have a full understanding of freedom of speech.
I thought I understood freedom of speech in the United Kingdom.
Ezra Levant for the Rebel.media, I'm standing outside the Old Bailey Central Criminal Courts in London shortly after Tommy Robinson was sentenced to prison for live streaming his political commentary on Facebook outside a rape gang trail trial last year in Leeds.
This has been a very long procedure, 14 months back and forth in the courts.
Tommy has already served 10 weeks in solitary confinement before that original conviction was quashed.
This was a retrial, and yet he was convicted again and sentenced again.
The long and the short of it is he was sentenced to a maximum of nine months in prison.
They reactivated an old three-month suspended sentence, added to it a new six-month sentence, and ordered that they be served consecutively nine months in prison for citizen journalism.
But, as I mentioned, because he served some time improperly, he gets credit for that.
There's other mathematics that apply.
So in the end, the effective sentence will be 19 weeks in prison.
And again, because there's a rule about early release, Tommy will be out in nine and a half weeks.
So after all the math, Tommy Robinson will be in prison for 66 days.
For the Rebel.media, I'm Ezra Levant.
I am in a car driving from Her Majesty's prison Belmarsh to Paddington train station, where I'll then get on the train to Heathrow Airport to go home to Canada.
So I am in a rush, which is why I'm filming this in a car.
But I would like to take this car right to tell you about my prison visit with Tommy Robinson.
He, as you know, was sentenced for contempt of court to a nine-month prison term.
And this is on top of the time he's already served.
Now, some of that time served will be deducted from this sentence, so he'll wind up being freed from prison in mid-September.
But he has been put in the harshest, most maximum security in London for a non-criminal offense of contempt of court.
By the way, no British journalist has been imprisoned for contempt of court in nearly a century.
So the reason I came to visit Tommy is not just because it's a good thing to do to visit someone in prison, but because I was deeply concerned that the prison authorities would abuse Tommy in the same manner that they had abused him at the prison he was in last year, HMP only.
Elements of that abuse include putting him in a small box, solitary confinement, with no human contact for 23 and a half hours a day, no television.
And then the half hour a day he was let out, he was screamed at by some of the Muslim prison gangs that were wishing him death.
He actually had death threats hand-delivered to his cell door, very specific death threats.
It was not just physical abuse, but the psychological abuse, abuse of 10 weeks in solitary confinement, which is illegal, by the way.
And finally, there was the starvation element.
Because Tommy's food was marked Stephen Yaksley Lennon and hand-delivered to his cell, the Muslim prison gangs that prepared it could tamper with his food in a way they couldn't tamper with food in the cafeteria style lines.
So there were various elements of his torture last time.
And I use that word on purpose because it is psychological and physical torture.
As evidence of that, I point out that he lost 40 pounds in 10 weeks.
So that's why I visited Belmarsh today.
And my immediate questions were, has he been mistreated by either prisoners or staff?
Has he been starved?
Has he had any threats?
Has he been subjected to physical or mental duress of any sort?
And let me give you the answers to those questions and other answers that I heard in my approximately one hour meeting with Tommy today.
First of all, Tommy is in a complete isolation unit.
It's a form of solitary confinement in that he literally has not seen a single other prisoner in his time at Belmarsh.
He just hasn't seen any.
And we were led into a distinct part of the prison where there simply was no one else.
There were so many prison staff who were working on Tommy's file.
Tommy tells me that even to unlock his door, to take him from his cell to the exercise bike, from the exercise bike to the weight room, from the weight room to the shower room, two guards are assigned to every one of those steps.
It's a bizarre handling unit.
I don't know how many prison staff are focused on Tommy, but it's enormous.
It's not like HMP Only where they just threw him in a hole and said, ha ha, see in 10 weeks.
It's sort of the opposite.
I mean, he is in solitary in that he has no other contact with prisoners, but he does have contact with prison staff.
And he tells me that the governor of the prison, the warden, as we call it in North America, actually visits him every day, even just for a moment, just to say, how's it going?
I thought that was very interesting.
Not only is the warden making himself available to Tommy, but he's inspecting to make sure things are well done.
I found that very interesting and relieving.
And here he is now.
Yeah, the camera's pointing this way.
They've been very insistent that I not.
Hey, Tommy.
How are you doing, man?
I'm doing great.
Look at you.
I know, man.
First up, Hairdesters.
Yeah, I know.
Have your fun with your memes.
Tommy, it's great to see you.
It's good to be seeing you.
You're in better health than you were last time.
We visited you a few times.
Say a few words to your supporters who have been rooting for you these past 66 days.
Yep, I'd say it's been.
I've enjoyed reading the support and hearing the support.
For me, the main thing for this should be an embarrassment to the British government, an embarrassment to the judiciary.
In the judge's words, so let's pretend I did commit contempt to court, which I didn't.
In her words, it was unintentional.
So something that was unintentional, something that was unintentional that had zero effect on a trial, would result in a man, a journalist, being put in prison, spending two and a half months of solitary confinement in Omni.
And this is the crazy thing.
I've walked into Belmarsh prison and walked out without seeing another prisoner.
But in a way, that was good because Onley, they would have killed you if they could.
they would have done yeah yeah essentially the governor here has done i i don't have a negative word to say about belmarsh christian or the or any of the sides Other than the insanity that you were in here in the beginning.
Other than the insanity, and by putting me at the Old Bailey, they knew they'd get me in Belmarsh.
So then they can get me on solitary on isolation.
Whereas if they would have put it in the second biggest court in the land, which was Winchester, I'd have gone to the Cat B local in Winchester.
I'd have been fine.
There's no Muslims in the jail.
But essentially, I know a look, I miss, so have your fun with it.
And it's ginger, so I look like a little cowardly convert coming out of jail.
As-salamu alaykum.
Do you know, it took 16 days?
This is another figure.
It took, which is what I find quite.
The imams come to see me each day.
The imams?
The imams every day.
Are they trying to get you on side?
They weren't.
They were all nice, yeah.
And it took 16 days.
Yeah, I'm not bothered by.
It took 16 days.
16 days before a Christian comes.
Really?
Every day, and they're four different imams within the 16 days, and then a Christian come, and when he come, I was just like, Holy...
There is a Christian one.
Well, listen, there are a few other media who came here.
What's your message to the media?
I have to say the mainstream media, the Daily Mirror's here, they were here early.
You read their lies.
I'll turn you around to get you in the back.
No, you can't.
I'm not throwing the prisoner.
Let's turn your story.
You read their lies.
You read their lies.
The Daily Mirror, I lied saying I was attacked.
The Daily Mirror lied saying I was attacked in this prison.
You lied.
You lied to the public.
You made up an entire story or you're part of the part of the propaganda that's pushed out.
My only message to them is you're a disgrace and embarrassment because if this happened to a journalist in Hong Kong, if what's happened to me happened to a journalist in Russia, in China, you'd all be up in arms.
But because I talk about Islam, you're all silent.
You're all complicit in the attack on free speech that we're witnessing.
You're all complicit on what's happened to our country.
All of the media are.
To any point, right now there's Venezuela.
I was found guilty by an appointed judge.
By an appointed judge who was working for a while.
No, not by jury.
Common law, English common law, says that if you can face over six months in prison, you get a jury.
I was not given a jury.
So you think you'd be not guilty if it was a jury?
I know I got found not guilty, and so do they.
It's the only offence in the whole entire country that you can get taken to prison for up to two years without a jury.
Without a jury?
That's how contempt works.
No, no, no, that's not how English common law works.
So that goes against English common law.
And why was I at the old Bailey?
You tell me as a journalist.
Why was I at the Old Bailey?
13 murder trials and me for holding my phone up.
And I was convicted of asking a profile Tommy.
Because I'm on high profile.
That's why I'm at the O Bailey.
Well, maybe it is.
What difference does that make?
Because they know you're going to have all your fans are going to be there.
What difference does it mean?
Because obviously the security procedures aren't the same as the old Bailey as they are at other courts.
Well, I've been to 10 different courts over the years.
They've never moved me to our bail.
Popularity has increased.
I'm glad you recognise that.
Tommy, it's because of your failures associated with the people.
It's weird to have this with the media debating with you.
Arguing because they're not media.
They are not media.
They're not journalists reporting stories.
I've never seen this before, that a journalist is taking the role of the prosecutor.
I mean, I like a good prickly question myself, but I've just...
I mean, of course I've never seen this except for...
It's our job to question people.
It's our job...
You're not questioning.
You're telling me.
You didn't question.
Promoting Assassination Against Trump00:09:55
You're telling me, Claire.
But at the same time.
Well, Tommy, tell me what, let's get you a haircut.
Let's get you a hot meal.
Let's get you reunited with your wife and kids.
Yeah, yeah.
Thank you, mate.
We're going to have to be.
Just before you leave, I'll grab it.
Thanks ever so much for me.
Help me out.
All right, Tommy.
Well, listen, let's get you cleaned up.
The sun, mate.
The sun.
You got a lot of friends and fans.
Give us one word about the mail.
I know that there was about a month before you were able to get your mails.
We'll be in that.
So there's like, I think there's 14 sacks.
14 sacks of mail?
I read every single one of your messages, every single bit of your mail.
And it was emotional for me to read the effect it has on people.
And it's also fulfilling to see the amount of people that woke up, that were awakened by what the British government have done and what they're doing.
All right, let's take care of you, my friend.
Nice to see you.
I'm glad you're free.
Cheers.
Well, Tommy Robinson was the highest profile journalist that we've helped free from prison, but he wasn't the first.
That honor goes to Laura Loomer, who worked with us briefly about three years ago.
Laura, as you may know, is actually the nominated Republican candidate for Congress in Florida.
In fact, the other day, Donald Trump tweeted her, and one of the Trump surrogates was out campaigning with her.
She might actually become the first rebel alumna elected to Congress.
Well, Laura's a bit of a troublemaker, which is why we like her.
And she went down to a play in New York City where, in that New York way, it was Julius Caesar, if I recall, and they replaced the murdered Caesar with a Donald Trump lookalike.
And the apex of the show was to murder Trump.
Well, Laura Luma was arrested for heckling that and going down to the stage and objecting.
We bailed her out.
Take a look at this.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to pause.
We're going to pause, security, security please.
You are off!
See you next time.
Bye.
Shame on the New York City public theater for promoting violence against Donald Trump.
Let's go.
All of you.
You are bad as ISIS.
The New York Public Theater is ISIS.
They don't support, they don't support the police, the NYPD.
They want to kill you guys, just like they want to kill Donald Trump.
I just want to voice my.
Shame on all of you.
I just want to voice my support for what you did.
Thank you.
Shoe!
Say!
Shame on the New York City public theater!
This is Casey Bitch.
You are totally right.
I support you.
Thank you.
So we just got kicked out.
And as you can see, they called the police.
Why do I need to exit the property?
Because you're calling for trespassing before you did.
We don't want to do that.
You just have to leave and that's the problem.
But they're actually promoting an assassination against Donald Trump in there.
How come you guys don't want to shut down this disgusting act?
How come you don't want to shut it down?
Do you guys promote the assassination of Donald Trump?
Do you guys want Donald Trump to be assassinated?
Shame on all of you because of liberal violence like this.
Congressman, a congressman this week was shot in Virginia.
Congressman Scalise!
Because of people like you who support violence against the right!
Violence against Republicans!
Shame on all of you!
Shame!
She's a right to speak.
Yes, but she could have been aware of the speaker.
Shame on all of you!
But she's out of time.
They literally stabbed a guy that looks like Donald Trump, and none of you are doing anything.
She's really speaking.
What is it going to take for you to wake up and realize that we can have this type of violence here in America?
Stop!
Stop!
Ma'am!
Do you support?
Do you support the normalization of political violence here in America?
Why not?
These are the people who want to kill you.
These are the people who are in the streets that say blue lives don't matter.
These are the people who join forces with terrorist organizations like Black Lives Matter and they shoot police officers because you guys, I mean, a lot of police officers align with the right because the right, unlike the left, actually supports blue lives and actually respects law enforcement.
Okay?
So you're choosing to align yourself with terrorists, actual terrorists.
Just today, you had people like refuse fascism and members of Antifa standing outside here in front of the theater with their signs talking about how much they hate Trump.
And I'm not allowed, I'm not allowed to, I'm not allowed to go over here and speak about what is right, right?
Condemning violence against the right, condemning the normalization of political violence.
I can't do that, but then you can have people.
Okay, I'm doing it.
Let me close it.
Well, I guess I'm being arrested.
You can't jump up on the stage here.
They're actually promoting.
I'll put it away.
I'll put it away.
Okay, guys, I'm getting arrested by the police.
Call Ezra Levant.
Call Charles Johnson.
Call Mike Cernovich.
I'm putting my palms together.
I'm not resisting.
I'm like the left, I'm not resisting.
All right, appreciate it.
That's cool.
Thanks.
Franklin, you got this?
Yes, I think this is enough.
Where?
Which square thing?
I'll find out.
I'm under arrest.
Call Charles Johnson.
Call Mike Cernovich.
How Alex doing?
Sean Ezra Levant.
Okay, is she being charged or is this just a defensive?
Yeah, am I being detained or am I being charged?
Okay, I'm putting my charge.
With what?
Still rolling?
Yes.
Just give us a little bit.
When they put me in, I guess you can just stop the broadcast.
Just follow this, you know?
I'm in New York City, so if anyone wants to come support me, I'm here in New York.
Jack Pasolik's here.
He's documenting everything, too.
Jack!
Okay, sorry.
I just find it incredible how someone can actually stab something that looks exactly like Donald Trump.
And they're pretty much promoting an assassination attempt.
Here in New York, people are really crazy.
You know, there have been bomb threats at Trump Tower.
People have threatened.
There's been over 12,000 threats on Twitter calling for Donald Trump's assassination.
But I can't condemn the normalization of political violence here against the right without getting arrested.
Some America we're living in.
You know, I'm speaking out because I care about Donald Trump.
I care about making America great again.
I care about journalism.
I care about activism.
You know, I care about speaking out for what's right.
Cassandra Fairbanks wants to be here.
Hi, Donald Trump Jr.
I saw your tweet about Julius Caesar and it inspired me to come out here today and stand up for your father and your family and condemn the normalization of political violence against the left.
Curfew Sets In00:04:19
But I'm being arrested, so.
Laura is a troublemaker, which is why I like her and why I have so many gray hairs.
And I can only imagine what she'll do to Congress if she is elected.
And by the way, the district she's running in, she's got a chance.
Well, more recently, when the Black Lives Matter protests started in Washington, D.C. and other places, before they truly got violent, we embedded a new reporter named Anna Slatz.
And we like to send bodyguards with reporters if they're in a dangerous place, but Anna wanted to go in low-key.
She sort of blends in with the left.
She is a woman of the left.
And she was doing very interesting reporting from the ground until a whole bunch of people were swept up at once and thrown in jail.
Despite Anna saying, no, I'm not a writer.
I'm not a protester.
I'm just a journalist.
They threw her in the clink anyways.
And given the COVID lockdown restrictions, it actually took us days to get her out.
Here's how we did that and the lawyers we hired to do it.
So yeah, curfew did set in more than an hour ago.
I'm not sure of the time right now.
And they don't appear to be attempting to enforce it in any way.
no one has been arrested.
The police aren't really attempting to enforce any kind of a curfew.
I mean, there would be no way.
There's probably, I would say, still over a thousand protesters in this line.
And there's maybe two dozen, two dozen police for this protest line.
And this is one of a few that are going on across the city.
Earlier today, apparently the police chief from NYPD did state that they were losing control.
And you get a sense of that because there's really no attempt to enforce anything, no attempt to block anything off.
It's just sort of a free-for-all out here.
Quick Update: Looters and Fighting00:15:42
I'm going to get off of live for now, and I'm going to keep posting videos as I have them available.
The night is really just beginning, so please do keep an eye on my Twitter feed on Rebel News' Twitter feed.
and later visit the StopAntifa.com for all of the coverage and commentary.
So very quick background.
We have a new reporter named Anna Slatz.
She does great work, great investigative journalist.
She's based in Atlantic, Canada.
And on the weekend, I talked to her and she said, I want to go cover the protests and the riots in the United States.
And Anna is interested in social justice.
I would even say she's left of center, but she has a great sensibility to her.
And I got to know her a little bit over the Jonathan Yaneeve issues.
And so I was delighted when she agreed to write for us.
And I thought she's a perfect fit to go and cover the Black Lives Matter protests, the peaceful protests, but also the antifa riots.
So she went to Washington, D.C. and did amazing frontline coverage for two days.
You can see she was right in the middle of it.
And we offered her serious security, but she declined it, saying she can move more quickly and quietly without a big lug next to her.
And she was right.
And thanks, David, but don't go away.
So she did great journalism for two days in Washington, D.C.
And then when things tamped down there a bit, she said, well, let's go to New York City.
And again, great news sense on her part.
New York is the epicenter of the protests and more importantly, the riots.
So last night she was doing her thing, outstanding journalism on the street.
And then a whole group of people were swept up by police and arrested immediately for what?
For breaking the curfew.
But the thing is, the curfew has a specific exemption for journalists.
And of course, Anna was there as a journalist.
She is a journalist.
The police had no time for details like that.
I suppose they were just in sweep everybody up mode.
They took her to the police station.
And she had one extremely brief phone call with me.
She just said, I've been arrested for breaking the curfew despite the exemption.
I'm at the Brooklyn Central booking station.
The officer is named Officer So-and-So.
I won't say his name here.
And then the cops took her phone away.
And that was the last I heard of her.
I immediately phoned our on-the-ground New York criminal lawyer who called me back right away, got right on the file, called the cop shop, had an officer go and try and find her to no avail.
And I do believe that given how many hundreds of people were swept up all at once.
But I was told that she would normally, in the course of events, be released within a couple of hours, and it was just a summons.
So it's not like a big fancy bail hearing or anything.
I don't even know if there's bail in New York anymore.
So I sent a text and an email to Anna's phone, knowing she would get that when she was released, saying, let me know when you're out.
Looks like everything's in hand.
And I just sort of, I guess I fell asleep around 3 or 4.
And I woke up with a start at 7 a.m. and realized that she hadn't called.
She was still in the clink.
So I we literally retained two more law firms, which is sort of what we do whenever it's sort of our go-to move.
So we have a New York criminal law firm and we got our Toronto firm on the works and they hired a second New York firm.
And let me just tell you what they've done.
So I'm giving you a quick update.
We've got the Canadian consulate in New York City on the file and they have made contact and are advocating on behalf of Anna who's a Canadian citizen.
So I'm amazed and delighted with how quickly the Canadian diplomats in New York are working for Anna's behalf.
That's frankly amazing and that's great.
While that track goes, we have another lawyer and I'm going to read an email I received from him.
So this is New York criminal lawyer number two who has filed an appearance.
Let me read the email that I received.
So there's so much going on.
So this is by one of our lawyers.
I'm not going to say his name, but he is a New York law firm based in Brooklyn actually.
Under normal circumstances, when a person is arrested, until they come before a judge, can take up to 24 hours.
I have regularly been able to get clients to arraignment the first court appearance significantly quicker.
We are currently not dealing with normal circumstances.
Given the pandemic, the courts are still physically closed to the public, including attorneys.
Court appearances for arraignments are being done remotely and virtually via Skype.
Additionally, due to the amount of arrests that occurred recently in Manhattan, you can imagine that the system is somewhat burdened.
I have already notified the court that Anna is represented by counsel, and I have submitted my notice of appearance to the court.
I do not yet know what time the arraignment will take place.
They will notify me.
I will also be checking in with the clerks regularly.
I will keep you posted as things develop and I learn new information.
As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out, yada, yada, yada.
So that's criminal lawyer number two, based right there in Brooklyn, on the file, filing a notice of appearance, but he's explaining the facts on the ground.
They actually have a physically closed court.
I have nonetheless asked for a lawyer to be either at the police station or immediately outside because it's important to me that if Anna is released, that she be met by someone immediately, even if it's a stranger with holding up a sign saying Anna.
So as you know, this morning I dispatched Yankee Pollock, a friend of mine, a friend of Anna's, who's in Montreal, and we looked at the different travel arrangements.
And driving down from Montreal to New York was actually the quickest.
He left immediately.
He left around 9.30 in the morning.
So I expect he will be in Brooklyn in three hours.
We have a massive legal brigade fighting to get Anna out of jail, and it is being quarterbacked here in Canada by our old friend Aaron Rosenberg, who you'll remember from our free speech battles.
And he joins me now via Skype.
Aaron, great to see you again.
So nice to see you.
Thanks, Ezra.
Well, you have been working on this since moments after I got the phone call last night at just before midnight.
I got the one-minute call from Anna Slatz.
I immediately wrote to our first New York criminal lawyer who we had worked with before, and I copied you because you're sort of helping us get through all our legal battles.
And you have since then increased our firepower on the ground with other lawyers, lawyers who are making appearances, lawyers who are standing by.
We've got a bit of a legal dream team trying to get Anna out of jail, don't we?
That's right.
I mean, this is an unprecedented amount of firepower to be throwing at the situation.
I don't think anything more can be done that's already been done right now.
We've got amazing people on the ground, just highly credentialed.
They are fighting every step of the way, and they are doing everything in their power to get Anna out of this terrible situation.
And I'm just so proud of the people that the team that we've assembled and the amount of firepower that's going into this.
You know, I just think it's absolutely so critical that we get her out of the situation as quickly as possible.
And I am just so honored to play even a small role in this.
I jumped out of bed and I was ready to take the next flight to New York.
Of course, I had the same quarantine issues as yourself, but I'm just so thrilled with who's down there, and I'm very proud of the situation.
Well, in addition to assembling the lawyers, and I thank you for putting together, we've got three lawyers now in New York.
I had one from before, and you've added two, including Michael Weinstock, who we just interviewed outside the courthouse.
He seems like a very nice man and a great patriot, too.
You've also did something that I didn't think of doing.
You and your colleague David, who's working with us on so many free speech battles, contacted the Canadian Consulate in New York City.
I just wouldn't have thought of that.
And they responded very quickly, didn't they?
That's right.
You know, they connected us to a specified agent who specializes in arrests and detention of Canadian citizens in New York City.
So it's exactly the people we want to be talking to.
And they were so helpful.
They facilitated finding out where Anna was, which was probably the most important question that was unanswered at that time.
So once we found out where she was, we could actually go to the location, send our fighting force over there, and stand out there and demand that she be released.
So that was such critical information.
We've been in contact with the consulate now since the morning.
They've been very helpful checking in, and they're very interested in this fight.
They want to keep fighting for us.
And that's just a few.
We've got the legal team down there.
We've got the Canadian embassy in New York City working on this.
And we're getting many more phone calls from support people, support teams across the country and in New York itself with people just trying to figure out how can we lend a hand?
How can we help?
And it's just the outpouring of support for Anna and for Rebel for this cause is so important.
You know, we cannot leave a man behind.
This is such an incredibly important free speech battle.
It's clear that there's an exemption for journalists on the ground after the curfew.
Anna was exercising in America her First Amendment right, what we would call free expression.
It's so critical.
If we're going to fight battles about free expression and freedom of the press, this is the type of battle we have to be fighting.
It's shameful that she was rounded up.
And as I said before, and I'll say again, we're not going to leave a man behind.
We're not going to leave this woman behind.
We're going to fight tooth and nail.
And we're just working our way to get her release as quickly as possible.
Hi, everybody.
It's Anna Slatz, and I am in New York City, where some dramatic events have unfolded over the last 24 hours, as some of you may have heard.
I was here in New York City trying to get some great footage and some great context for the Antifa riots and George Floyd protests that have been racking many U.S. cities.
As many of you know, I was in Washington, D.C. just before this.
I was sent out by Rebel News just to get the real story and to see what was happening on the ground.
Unfortunately, my plans were stifled, to say the least.
After a short period of time covering the protests and even a little bit of the looting and destruction that happened here on the 2nd, I was arrested by NYPD and I was arrested largely for filming them while they were taking down innocent bystanders who were just in the scene of the looting while letting the looters go and run free.
I started the evening by marching with the Black Lives Matter protesters who had assembled.
The protest was largely peaceful.
When we got to Union Square, there was well over 2,000 people involved in the marching demonstration.
No property had been destroyed.
Nothing of that sort had taken place.
But I got to witness a few interesting interactions that happened in Union Square between Black Lives Matter protesters.
While some Black Lives Matter protesters were out there with their megaphones condemning any looting or destruction and requesting their fellow marchers not to promote or engage in that, some other Black Lives Matter protesters were suggesting that it was in fact a form of reparations and that they should be allowed to loot and pillage and destroy as much as they wanted to.
Someone goes and loots something.
That's what's promised to them.
We taking our own shit.
First class of the Civil War.
So we didn't, wait, wait.
So we didn't just stop this whole bull****.
Oh, we need to be peaceful.
Peace, peace, peace.
No.
Later on in the evening, there was a very interesting interaction I was witness to, but unfortunately could not get on my recordings, and that was between a young man who was involved in the march and some of the march's leaders.
This young man was trying to discourage the marching line from heading up certain streets because he informed us that there were looters waiting in the dark and shady spots of those streets for the marching line to converge upon where they were so that the looting could begin.
Looters had managed to actually rip down the plywood guard for the doors.
As they were coming out, some were actually just throwing the clothes up into the air, just igniting even more chaos as people rushed to go and grab whatever they were throwing and dropping.
One Black Lives Matter protester who was furious that anyone was looting the Zara began to get into physical altercations with the looters.
If you're here to protest police brutality, you will stop these looters!
You will stop these looters!
Right you!
You will stand up to this guy infiltrating our boots!
I'm an ally!
You're not an ally!
As I continued to film, the NYPD showed up.
And when they did show up, of course the looters scattered.
But rather than going for the looters, the people who obviously had handfuls of clothes, big backpacks full of merchandise that they had taken from the Zara, or even people who were coming out of the Zara in the broken glass entrance, they began just arresting random bystanders.
People, perhaps, who they knew would not resist arrest, would not try to run, make their life a little bit easier.
Oh my god!
So the police are arresting.
Please subscribe to somebody.
I recorded one man who absolutely had nothing to do with the looting, brutally trackled to the ground an NYPD shove his face into the pavement while attempting to arrest him.
Shortly after that, a swarm of NYPD began to brutally call out anybody who was even remotely close to the Zara, whether or not they had poor intentions or not, threatening to arrest all of them.
Media Exempt From Curfew?00:06:42
I became a target for the NYPD.
While I was holding up my press pass, clearly showing it and yelling out, I am media, to all of the NYPD officers who looked my direction.
I began to be brutally shoved around with a baton to my chest, telling me to go home, that I was past curfew, that I was breaking the curfew that exists here in New York, one that goes into play at around 8 p.m. every night.
However, media is exempt from the curfew, just like essential workers, such as those in health care or grocery or transportation.
So I was yelling, media is exempt from the curfew.
It's not exactly something I should have had to say to the NYPD, as they should know the laws that they are enforcing.
After I took a baton to the chest, an NYPD officer grabbed me by the throat and threw me into the middle of the intersection.
Media is accepted!
Media is accepted!
After stumbling my way to the next sidewalk on the parallel street, I was accosted by a police officer and a white-shirted lieutenant who then demanded that I be arrested.
Media is accepted!
The mayor!
The mayor said media is accepted!
Media is accepted!
Lock him up!
Oh my god!
No!
No!
Media accepted!
Media is accepted!
Stop!
They then took me to Brooklyn Central Processing, where they put me in a cell that was maybe very generously measured at 5 feet by 16 feet.
And there were 20 other women in the cell with me.
We were literally back to chest.
And these women were in tremendous amounts of pain.
Some of them had injuries.
Some of them had their cuffs on so tight that their hands were bleeding.
Some of them had big swollen fingers because they'd been wearing their zip ties with their metal cuffs for hours and hours and hours.
It included two health care aides who had been arrested while caring for their client, their patient.
It was a woman with lupus who had a catheter in her chest for another condition.
And they told me how their patient had literally been begging the NYPD not to arrest them because she needed help with her catheter and with her medications and so on.
They arrested these two girls for being out past curfew and they charged them with burglary.
There was a 12-year-old boy in the male cell that was directly beside the female cell, measured exactly the same, perhaps with even more bodies in it.
He was 12.
A 12-year-old boy, and he looked 12.
He was so short and tiny with such big eyes.
I'll never forget how scared he looked.
At around 3:30 a.m., I was transferred from Brooklyn Central Processing to Manhattan Central Processing, where I got to experience yet another booking.
This time, one that included a full search of my person in a pretty degrading way.
And I was put in a cell that was, you know, very similar in condition to the one that I experienced in Brooklyn.
It was overcrowded.
When I got in there, it made nine women that had to share those three metal benches to try to get some semblance of sleep.
Of course, I never slept.
While in Manhattan, they refused to give people phone calls.
There were a few women that I shared a cell with who routinely broke down thinking about how they weren't able to contact their families.
And when they told me how long that they had been in that cell, I was in shock.
Some of those women had been in there, including a pregnant woman, had been in there for seven days.
I actually started to lose hope at one point that I would ever be released because what was supposed to be a very quick processing where I had my charge and I spoke to a judge and it would get ultimately dismissed turned into a fear that I would be forgotten like the rest of those women were.
The rest of those women, who, by and large, after speaking to so many of them, had never been involved in the protest or the looting and were just standers-by that the NYPD just happened to be able to grab.
These were just anybody they could grab, anybody at arm's reach who would comply and who would disappear through the system.
After I was released from Manhattan Central Processing, I was actually greeted by some strange bedfellows.
The National Lawyers Guild, which is a pretty infamous group charity that mostly handles Antifa legal support, was actually waiting for me outside the back entrance of the prison that they snuck me out of.
They said, oh, you're Anna Slatz.
Yes, I am.
They very kindly drove me to Brooklyn where my items were still in holding.
I'm not going to stop covering riots or marches.
I'm not deterred by what the NYPD did to me.
I am emboldened, I am strengthened, and I will continue to do what it is I feel like I do best, and that is get right to the heart of the action and show you what is happening on the ground wherever you want to see it.
But I want to thank you all for showing me such a tremendous amount of support during a really desperate and scary moment in my career.
I also want to thank my employer at Rebel News who continued to fight for me behind the scenes, even though I was unaware of it most of the time just because of how cut off I was from the rest of the world.
But there were so many things being done that were all aimed at trying to get me out as fast as possible.
There was a website established while I was in called Save Anna Slatz and if you'd like to continue to support me, you can visit that website.
You can visit stopantifa.com which is where I put the majority of my riot coverage so far from Washington, D.C.
So this is Anna Slatz in New York City.
Millie Weaver's Legal Defense00:12:27
A free woman once again and going to be back up to my old antics very, very soon.
Well, we sort of have a motto here at Rebel News.
We never leave anyone behind, even if they're very brand new to the company, as Anna was.
We also sometimes help journalists who have nothing to do with us.
We did that just the other week.
Millie Weaver is a journalist that I actually don't at the time have any relationship with.
She never worked for us.
She wasn't a pen pal or anything.
I just saw her on the internet like many others did.
And then I saw a bizarre video of her being arrested at her home in front of her family on a Friday afternoon so that she had to stay in jail all weekend before she had a chance to appear before a judge to be released.
It looked fishy to me.
And so we set up a GoFundMe for Millie Weaver.
Take a look at how some of that went.
Oh, thank God.
Look at this.
Breaking news, breaking news, breaking news.
Millie, Gavin, and Chuck all are being released this afternoon.
The kids will stay with Millie and Gavin.
Everybody should be reunited by dinner.
All great news.
Just finished speaking with the attorneys a few minutes ago.
Thanks.
Isn't that amazing?
You just heard it live.
But I want to talk a little bit about an interesting little story out of the United States.
Maybe some of you have heard of the independent journalist named Millie Weaver.
She started her TV career, I think, under the nickname Millennial Millie because she's a youngster.
And I can't claim to know her in a personal way.
I just know her like so many other people do.
I watch her stuff and I like what she does.
She's telegenic, she's courageous, sort of a happy warrior, she's friendly, and people talk to her.
And so, you know, I'm just a fan, that's all.
But I saw this shocking video of her being arrested at her home with kids there.
And I know a little something about how arrests go.
I'm a former lawyer myself.
And we've had some trouble making rebels over the years, Tommy Robinson being an obvious example.
And I know that unless there's some hot pursuit or something like that, or unless someone is a dangerous, violent criminal who might flee or commit more violence, typically police just call you up and say, hey, can you, you know, as a courtesy, they say, we're going to arrest you.
Do you want to come down to the police station?
Or they call your lawyer and say, would you like to come in and let's do the paperwork?
And they do that typically to avoid embarrassment for the arrested person.
Like, you've got to have a mean streak as a cop or a prosecutor to barge into someone at a public restaurant or at their office or, you know, if you watch the Sopranos, at your daughter's wedding.
So the idea that they would go to Millie's home and arrest her in front of the kids on a Friday afternoon so that by the time she's processed, she's in jail all weekend.
That was a bunch of prosecutors and police using their discretion to make it as embarrassing and painful as possible.
If she were arrested on any other day of the week, she would have been in front of a judge within hours rather than days.
And, you know, she's no flight risk.
She's got kids in a house.
She's not violent at all.
The charges have nothing to do, no relation to violence.
So I saw this video, and I saw her repeatedly ask the cop, what's going on?
What's the charge?
What are you doing?
And not getting an answer.
And it was just so abnormal to me, I felt compelled to do something about it.
And I'll tell you what I did in a moment, but first let me play for you at least a portion of the cell phone footage of Millie Weaver's arrest.
Take a look at this.
You're saying a grand jury indicted me?
For what?
We're going to have two 21s out here.
We have room to transport one.
Can you send us a car, please?
It's 9107 Yale Road.
Okay.
I will give you all your paperwork when we get to the jail right now.
I need you to get some shoes because we need to get moving.
Okay.
We need to get this thing care of.
Well, this time, you and I got an elephant.
Guys, I don't know what's happening right now.
The police have just showed up at my house, and they said that they're arresting me.
They said that a grand jury indicted me for something.
I have no idea what.
This is crazy.
Where's my shoe?
I have one shoe here.
Okay.
And one shoe there.
So we're good.
So why wasn't I given anything in the mail?
Like, I have no idea what this is talking about.
Yeah, really.
Guys, I'm literally about to break huge breaking news right now, and I'm being arrested, and I have no idea.
We're being charged with burglary.
Burglary?
Yeah.
For what?
They can't say how much.
They're not even saying they're saying we're being charged with burglary.
Is this from the grand jury or are these green sheets?
Grand jury?
Are these green sheets or are they grand?
Is this an indictment?
Okay, very good.
Okay.
This is my son right now.
Let's go.
To the car.
I've been more than nice.
To the car.
I don't understand what's happening right now.
Please share this.
I've been more than nice.
Really?
So you go to a woman's home and you arrest her in front of her kids, and that's being more than nice.
You did hear a burglary charge.
Now, I'm not going to try and get into the substance or the merits of the claim of the action.
I just don't have the facts in front of me.
I understand that today the matter will go before court in Ravenna, Ohio.
Millie was arrested, and I understand Gavin, her common-law spouse, was arrested as well.
And the kids were placed, I think, with one of the grandparents.
I was advised that at 11 a.m. today, so about an hour ago, juvenile court started to sit in Ohio to determine what will happen to the kids.
But how can you do that if the mom and dad are still in jail?
Now, apparently later today they'll have their arraignment.
But why would you do juvenile court first when you don't know if the parents are good?
It's a lot of curious things.
Now I'm not an expert in Ohio law.
I'm a former lawyer but a Canadian lawyer.
So I know there's a few things here that are sketchy from my point of view.
But it seems to me, or at least it certainly seemed to me just watching that video, that things here are irregular.
I'm not necessarily saying illegal, but to arrest a mom in front of her kid when that mom is not a flight risk and clearly not a danger to herself or others, that is a choice.
That's a choice.
And why was that choice made?
Well, Millie is a conservative journalist, a skeptic, a dissident, and she released a YouTube documentary about the U.S. government on that same day.
Some people are connecting the two.
I have no idea.
The nature of the charges do not seem to be associated with the content of the video.
But is the timing, is the manner of the arrest?
I don't know.
And over the weekend, people were asking me, well, what about the charges?
They don't seem to be political in nature.
You heard the word burglary, and I heard some different explanations and excuses, and I thought, you know what?
I'm not going to get into the substance of it.
I'm going to focus on one thing only.
Let's get Millie a legal defense fund.
Because unless she is independently wealthy, and I don't think she is, getting lawyers to help her, her common-law husband, her kids, I just know that's going to be tens of thousands of dollars.
I just know it.
And so I called some of Millie's friends and colleagues.
I don't know Millie.
I don't have a personal connection with Millie, but I know we have friends in common.
And I called them up on Friday and I said, what are you guys doing?
Are you going to do a crowdfund?
And none of them really were.
And I'm not going to judge that.
I mean, maybe they don't know how to do it.
Maybe they didn't want the notoriety or the publicity.
So I called two or three people and they said no.
And I said, well, fine, I'll do it.
It's very easy to set up a crowdfunding page, actually.
Now, I'm based in Toronto, Canada.
So unfortunately, the rules of GoFundMe is that the crowdfund has to be set up in Canadian currency.
But other than that one wrinkle, there's really no reason why anyone in the world couldn't set up a crowdfund for Millie Weaver.
So I did that at about 3 o'clock Pacific time.
I was out West on Friday.
And I'm very pleased that over the weekend, look at that, $152,000.
Now that's Canadian mini bucks, but that's still more than $100,000 U.S.
So I'm very pleased with that.
You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to send a text to, I'm just going to say, any news, because Matt, who is a family friend and advisor to Millie and her common-law husband, who's just been really working all weekend.
I've been in touch with him a number of times all weekend.
He's trying to find lawyers.
He's trying to deal with the criminal side, with the juvenile side.
So much going on.
So I just, he's at the courthouse.
I just texted him any news, and I see him writing back to me right now.
So when he's done typing that, I'll let you know what he says.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
We got this fun video.
Oh, let me just read this.
Oh, thank God.
Look at this.
Breaking news, breaking news, breaking news.
Millie, Gavin, and Chuck all are being released this afternoon.
The kids will stay with Millie and Gavin.
Everybody should be reunited by dinner.
All great news.
Just finished speaking with the attorneys a few minutes ago.
Thanks.
Isn't that amazing?
You just heard it live.
Let me read it again.
This is from Matt.
I'm not going to say his last name.
He's a family friend and advisor to Millie and her husband.
And he's literally at the court right now.
And I just texted him.
I just said, any news?
And he wrote, Millie, Gavin, and Chuck all are being released this afternoon.
Well, Millie is out of jail.
Crowdfunding Success00:01:42
And thanks to our crowdfunding, her lawyers have some ammo to fight back.
I expect to do an interview with Millie in the days ahead to see how things are working out.
But the short story is she's being reunited with her kids.
That's what Rebel News does.
We fight for freedom, not just for ourselves and our journalists, but for other journalists around the world.
We think it sets a precedent.
We wish other media companies did the same.
I can't think of the last time any other Canadian media organization went to bat for a journalist in a real and tangible way.
What I mean by that is crowdfunding, sending lawyers, or even making a big ruckus about an inappropriate arrest of a journalist.
We even help people we don't necessarily agree with ideologically because freedom in the press is something you have to give to your opponents if you want it for yourself.
I was talking with some colleagues earlier today, and we thought one of the reasons why other journalists don't crowdfund or help arrested journalists is because no one else gets arrested other than us in Canada and our conservative friends.
I think that's part of it.
Also, I think we care about freedom and we know we have to fight for it.
And it's easier to fight in the first ditch than the last.
Another way of saying that is, if you fight for someone else's freedom, maybe you won't be forced to fight for your own, at least not as soon.
Well, that's a special edition of the Ezra Levant Show, a review of the four or five times we've helped journalists who were arrested, and not just from our own company.
If you were someone who chipped in to crowdfund the lawyers or the other costs we paid along the way, I want to say thanks to you.