Report: Feds Helped Orchestrate Anti-Zimmerman Protests after Trayvon Martin Shooting
Photo Credit: APBy Fox News. A conservative watchdog group accused the Justice Department of helping manage the “pressure campaign” last year against George Zimmerman in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting, citing documents that show an obscure agency spent thousands assisting local demonstrations.
The little-known agency, the Community Relations Service, is described by the Justice Department as their “peacemaker” for community conflicts over race.
The protests last spring over Martin’s death certainly qualified as such a conflict. But while the department claims its “peacemaker” agency does not “take sides” in such disputes, Judicial Watch said the documents and public accounts show otherwise.
“These documents detail the extraordinary intervention by the Justice Department in the pressure campaign leading to the prosecution of George Zimmerman,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said.
The documents the group received — and has since published online — show the CRS agency filing a series of expenses incurred during the late March and early April demonstrations. Read more from this story HERE.
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Federal Agency Involved in Protests is a Secretive Branch of the Justice Department
By Tom Topousis. A secretive branch of the U.S. Department of Justice was deployed to Sanford, Fla., in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting to help organize rallies, including one headlined by the Rev. Al Sharpton, calling for the arrest and prosecution of George Zimmerman.
Records obtained by the watchdog group Judicial Watch, under the Freedom of Information Act, showed that members of the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service were sent to Sanford in March and April of 2012 to help manage protests, The Daily Caller reported Wednesday.
The 347 pages of documents obtained from the federal government showed that $5,320 in expenses was claimed by the Community Relations Service for workers assigned to protests and marches in and around Sanford after Zimmerman was accused of shooting Martin. Read more from this story HERE.
