Florida jurors began deliberating Wednesday in a trial in which four activists have been accused of acting as illegal agents for Russia, helping the Kremlin to create political discord in the U.S. while also interfering in America’s elections.
The four people either are or were at one time affiliated with the African People’s Socialist Party as well as the Uhuru Movement. Those groups have locations in St. Louis and St. Petersburg, Florida.
One of the people who are charged in the case is 82-year-old Omali Yeshitela, who served as the chairman of an organization based in the U.S. that’s focused on empowering Black people, as well as the effort to get reparations paid for slavery, which they consider a genocide of African people.
In addition, the Department of Justice has charged 34-year-old Jesse Nevel and 78-year-old Penny Hess, both of whom led branches of white allies for the group.
Another defendant is 38-year-old Augustus Roman Jr., who in 2018 started an Atlanta-based group called The Black Hammer after he was kicked out of the Uhurus.
The attorneys in the case finished up their closing arguments on Tuesday. At that time, the jurors in the case had requested that they go home for the night, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
The trial originally was scheduled to last for about one month. It moved through rather quickly, though, and ended after just one week worth of testimony.
In his closing arguments, prosecutor Menno Goedman said:
“The defendants knowingly partnered with the Russian government. Just look at their own words.”
Attorneys for the defense argued that Yeshitela only guessed at what the other defendants were doing and wasn’t 100% sure.
Leonard Goodman, a Chicago-based attorney who is representing Hess in the case, argued that the head of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, Aleksandr Ionov, concealed from the Uhurus group the relationship he had with intelligence agencies in Russia.
Goodman argued that the government has “not proven that they knew Ionov was a Russian agent or a Russian government official.”
He further said the case was “dangerous” to First Amendment rights, asserting that the federal government was just trying to silence the Uhuru group because they expressed their views.
Hess, Nevel and Yeshitela are all facing maximum sentences of 15 years behind bars if they’re convicted of the charges of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. as well as failing to register with the DOJ as an agent of a foreign government.
Romain faces five years for that same failure to register charge.
All of the defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
The DOJ has also charged three Russians in the case, though none of them have been arrested yet. Prosecutors say that two of those people work as intelligence agents for the Kremlin.
William Jung, the judge overseeing the case, has said that Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election are not at issue in this case.
