Federal jury finds army veteran and two other ICE protesters guilty of conspiracy

A federal jury has found three protesters, including a US military veteran of the war in Afghanistan, guilty on felony conspiracy charges on Thursday for their part in a June 2025 protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Legal experts have said the Spokane, Washington, case marked a serious escalation in the Trump administration’s attack on first amendment rights. The demonstrators now face potential sentences of up to six years in prison and a $250,000 fine. They are expected to appeal. All three defendants have also filed a rarely used motion asking US district court judge Rebecca Pennell to set their guilty verdicts aside. The motion, known as Rule 29, allows defense attorneys to argue the prosecution’s evidence is so weak that no rational juror could find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. “I’m not done. I’m going to keep fighting,” said Bajun Mavalwalla, a former US army sergeant who was among those convicted. His father, Bajun Ray Mavalwalla, a retired US army intelligence officer with three Bronze Stars earned in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the “verdict sets a precedent for those wishing to disenfranchise people from their rights to speech, expression, and assembly”. Robert Chang, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Law and executive director of its Fred T Korematsu Center for Law and Equality called the verdict “frightening”. “By this logic, any protest could be a conspiracy,” he said. …