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An Illinois Democratic congressional candidate posted video to social media that appears to depict events described in a federal indictment accusing her of impeding Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The 26-year-old Kat Abughazaleh, a self-styled “Gen Z influencer,” has called the charges a “political prosecution” and said she was exercising her First Amendment rights, not breaking the law.
“I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice,” she wrote on X. “This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.”
During a protest outside ICE’s Broadview Service Staging Area in suburban Chicago on Sept. 26, federal prosecutors allege that she joined a mob that swarmed a law enforcement vehicle, blocking it with their bodies before someone etched the word “PIG” into the vehicle and others ripped off a mirror and windshield wiper.
WATCH: Illinois Democrat posts video of ICE protest that led to her federal indictment
According to the indictment, Abughazaleh is accused of taking part in the blockade at around 7:45 a.m. that same day.
“ABUGHAZALEH joined the crowd at the front of the Government Vehicle, and with her hands on the hood braced her body and hands against the vehicle while remaining directly in the path of the vehicle, hindering and impeding Agent A and the vehicle from proceeding to the [staging area],” the indictment reads.
The video appears to show just that, with Abughazaleh at the head of the crowd, leaning into the front of the unmarked vehicle, a black SUV with flashing lights.
Abughazaleh bills herself as a radical progressive Democrat whose platform includes a wealth tax on rich Americans, a $25 minimum wage and “an immediate pathway to citizenship for DREAMers and other undocumented immigrants.” Her hobbies include knitting and playing video games, according to her website.
Read the indictment:
She has also vehemently opposed the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigrants. In a televised interview earlier this month, she told former White House press secretary Jen Psaki that she thinks Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “should be tried at the Hague” — a reference to the Netherlands-based International Criminal Court.
Abughazaleh faces two counts under a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday: conspiracy to prevent a law enforcement officer from discharging his duties and forcibly impeding, intimidating and interfering with a federal officer. Five other people at the protest were also charged.
Two of them are also involved in local politics: Michael Rabbitt, a Democratic committee person in Chicago’s 45th Ward, and Catherine Sharp, a candidate for the Cook County Board of Commissioners.
The Gen Z candidate is running for Illinois’ 9th Congressional District seat to replace outgoing 81-year-old Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who is retiring after holding the office since 1999.
Fox News’ Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.
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