Trump's Ambassador Lobbied Britain On Behalf of Jailed Right-Wing Activist Tommy Robinson

[appalachiablue]

Source: Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, complained to the British ambassador in Washington D.C. about the treatment of an English right-wing activist who is in jail for disrupting a trial, according to three sources familiar with the discussion.

Brownback raised the case of the activist known as Tommy Robinson in a June meeting with Sir Kim Darroch, Britain’s Ambassador to the United States, according to a British official and two sources close to the organizers of a pro-Robinson demonstration planned for London on Saturday.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, though he also uses other aliases, is a founder of the English Defense League, which has organised violent demonstrations against Islamic immigrants in the UK in the past decade. More recently, Robinson has branded himself a journalist and campaigner against Islamic extremism, a move that won him contacts with American anti-Muslim activists.

Robinson was arrested in late May outside a courthouse in Leeds, England, while making video recordings about a trial related to child molestation and jailed for 13 months for violating English law limiting publicity during criminal trials...More..


Read more: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-britain-robinson/trumps-ambassador-lobbied-britain-on-behalf-of-jailed-right-wing-activist-tommy-robinson-idUKKBN1K331C

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Reuters was unable to determine why the top U.S. official responsible for defending religious freedom would try to intervene with the British government on behalf of an activist who has expressed ant-Islamic views.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. "Tommy Robinson" is an habitual criminal, and lobbying for him is like saying

"there are good people on both sides" in Charlottesville.

The article makes it sound like the 13 month sentence came suddenly because of the filming in May:

"Robinson was arrested in late May outside a courthouse in Leeds, England, while making video recordings about a trial related to child molestation and jailed for 13 months for violating English law limiting publicity during criminal trials"

but the point is he already had a suspended sentence for taking pictures inside a court last year:

In May 2017, Robinson was convicted of contempt of court for using a camera inside Canterbury Crown Court and received a suspended sentence.[69] According to Judge Heather Norton, "this is not about free speech, not about the freedom of the press, nor about legitimate journalism, and not about political correctness. It is about justice and ensuring that a trial can be carried out justly and fairly, it's about being innocent until proven guilty. It is about preserving the integrity of the jury to continue without people being intimidated or being affected by irresponsible and inaccurate 'reporting', if that's what it was".[70]

On 25 May 2018, Robinson was arrested for a breach of the peace while live streaming outside Leeds Crown Court[70][71] during a trial on which reporting restrictions had been ordered by the judge.[72]
...
On 29 May 2018, the reporting restriction was lifted with regard to Robinson, following a challenge by journalists, and the media reported that Robinson had admitted contempt of court by publishing information that could prejudice an ongoing trial, and had been sentenced to 13 months' imprisonment.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Robinson_%28activist%29

As Wikipedia points out:

He qualified in 2003 after five years of study, but then he was convicted for drunken assault of an off-duty police officer. He served a 12-month prison sentence
Lennon uses the alias Tommy Robinson, taking the name of a prominent member of the "Men In Gear" (MIG) football hooligan crew, which follows Luton Town Football Club.
Robinson was convicted in 2011 of using "threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour" during a fight between supporters of Luton Town and Newport County in Luton the previous year.
On 29 September 2011, Robinson was convicted of common assault after headbutting a fellow EDL member at a rally in Blackburn in April that year.
In October 2012, Robinson was arrested and held on the charge of having entered the United States illegally. Robinson pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to using someone else's passport to travel to the United States in September 2012, and was sentenced in January of 2013 to 10 months' imprisonment.[36][37] Robinson had used a passport in the name of Andrew McMaster to board a Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow to New York.[38] He had been banned from entering the USA due to a drugs offence. He was detained by authorities in New York as an illegal immigrant but left the USA the next day using a passport in the name of Paul Harris to travel back to the UK.
In November 2012, Robinson was charged with three counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by misrepresentation in relation to a mortgage application, along with five other defendants.[48] He pleaded guilty to two charges and in January 2014 was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment. ... In June 2014 Robinson was released on licence. The terms of his early release included having no contact with the EDL until the end of his original sentence in June 2015.[53] He was due to talk to the Oxford Union in October 2014, but was recalled to prison before the event for breaching the terms of his licence.

It is truly appalling that the US "Ambassador for International Religious Freedom" is lobbying for a man with a long record of breaking the law, frequently violently, and who tried to enter the USA illegally. "Robinson" broke laws that everyone knows about, and that everyone would be charged with breaking if they did. This has nothing to do with "Religious Freedom". Robinson is, however, anti-Muslim, and so I guess Brownback sees him as a fellow traveller.

[justhanginon]

4. Appalling but not unexpected given the track records of both

Brownback and trump. In this case, "birds of a feather" do seem to stick together much to our countries detriment.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Reuters, the answer is because Brownback loves anybody who hates Muslims.

[Mc Mike]

3. Serial scumbag and criminal. Violent criminal and weaselly scam artist. Nazi.

aka Stephen Christopher Yaxley, Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, Stephen Lennon, Andrew McMaster, Paul Harris.

You just know that someone with at least 6 different names, who appears in the courts all the time, and in media as an 'activist', all the time, is obviously not up to anything 'bad'.

[Hortensis]

5. Contemptible. I feel for our Islamic Americans. They

deserve a president who serves, not threatens, them. And I believe he does. At less than 1% of the population, with at least a third of their fellow citizens bigoted against them to begin with and hostilities already launched against Islam, they'd make a very satisfactory target for persecution.

[riversedge]

6. a "Free Tommy Robinson" demonstration.........

wonder if Republican U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar --the I can read body language dentist--will be out in the street??




Trump's Ambassador Lobbied Britain On Behalf of Jailed Right-Wing Activist Tommy Robinson

LONDON (Reuters) - Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, complained to the British ambassador in Washington D.C. about the treatment of an English right-wing activist who is in jail for disrupting a trial, according to three sources familiar with the discussion.


.......Last week, the Middle East Forum, a Philadelphia group, said it was sponsoring and organizing a “Free Tommy Robinson” demonstration in London near the British Parliament on Saturday in collaboration with British and European groups.

The event was expected to merge with a demonstration in support of U.S. President Donald Trump, who appointed Brownback, according to the British newspaper The Independent.

Demonstration organizers said in a leaflet which circulated in London this week that Republican U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar and Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders were scheduled to speak at its rally. U.S. Congressman Gosar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But Wilders tweeted on Thursday that he would not attend the rally because the U.K. Ambassador to the Netherlands, Peter Williams, told Dutch authorities Britain would not provide security for him.

British police said they were imposing restrictions on the event to “prevent serious disruptions” after protesters at a previous event made Nazi salutes and threw bottles at officers.............................


Read more: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-usa-trump-britain-robinson/trumps-ambassador-lobbied-britain-on-behalf-of-jailed-right-wing-activist-tommy-robinson-idUKKBN1K331C


Reuters was unable to determine why the top U.S. official responsible for defending religious freedom would try to intervene with the British government on behalf of an activist who has expressed ant-Islamic views.