Feds 'selectively prosecuted' 'far-right' agitators while letting Antifa walk: California judge

A California judge dismissed a case against two alleged white supremacists after agreeing that the pair had been "selectively prosecuted" under a "once-rarely-used" federal statute that was not similarly applied to "far-left" groups like Antifa and By Any Means Necessary.

The statute at the center of the case is the Anti-Riot Act of 1968. According to federal prosecutors, two members of the "far-right" group the Rise Above Movement — Robert Boman and Robert Rundo — violated the act in 2017 by coordinating to bring like-minded agitators from across the country to engage in violence during right-wing and/or MAGA rallies in Huntington Beach, Berkeley, and San Bernardino, California.

In 2019, Judge Cormac J. Carney of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed the case against the two RAM members, concluding that the Anti-Riot Act violated the First Amendment. But an appeals court overruled his decision, allowing prosecutors to re-charge Boman and Rundo.

As in the 2019 case, the defendants motioned to dismiss the charges, this time on the grounds that they had been selectively prosecuted. And once again, Judge Carney agreed.

"There is no doubt that the government did not prosecute similarly situated individuals," Carney wrote in a decision released February 21.

"Despite the involvement of both the far left and far right, the federal government never charged far-left activists under the Anti-Riot Act for their violence at these political rallies," the decision continued, despite the fact that members of Antifa and BAMN "engaged in worse conduct and in fact instigated much of the violence that broke out at these otherwise constitutionally protected rallies."

While Carney admitted that the defendants harbor "reprehensible" views and likely "committed violence for which they deserve to be prosecuted," he likewise cautioned that "all," regardless of ideology, are entitled to the same freedom and protections under the Constitution.

As a result, Rundo was allowed to walk out of court a free man — temporarily. After the decision, federal prosecutors quickly filed an emergency motion with a panel of judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting that Rundo be rearrested and detained without bail since he allegedly posed a flight risk. Rundo did flee to Romania after the first case against him and had to be extradited to the U.S. last August.

That request was granted. Rundo will now "remain in custody pending resolution of appellant’s motion to stay release pending appeal," the appeals court ruled. "No lower court may order his release absent further order of this Court."

Boman, on the other hand, had already bonded out by the time Carney rendered his decision. He also expressed remorse for his "old antics."

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