The arrest of the ‘Spokane 9’ stained by accusations of political justice

Smoke and pepper balls filled the streets of Spokane on June 11.

Hundreds had gathered to protest the federal detainment of two legal asylum seekers after a routine immigration check-in. Following a clash with police, 30 arrests for failing to disperse amid a curfew in parts of the city. Those arrested were booked into the local jail and released.

There were no whispers among protesters of any federal charges – yet.

A day later, the U.S. Justice Department sent out a mass email to all 93 U.S. attorneys ordering federal prosecutors to prioritize cases against protesters who defy federal immigration enforcement and to publicize those types of cases, a Reuters report shows.

Within a month came the resignation of Acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker, who had spent five months in the office leading the federal prosecutor’s office for Eastern Washington. Barker left his post for a role at Singleton Schreiber, a law firm with attorneys across the western half of the United States.

Barker wrote in a statement on LinkedIn last month he was grateful he “never had to sign an indictment or file a brief that I didn’t believe in.”

Two days later, FBI agents arrested nine Spokane protesters after federal prosecutors secured grand jury indictments. The nine are accused of conspiracy against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Two face additional charges of assaulting a federal officer.

Bajun Mavalwalla II is among those arrested for his alleged conspiracy to block the driveway of the ICE detention facility on West Cataldo Avenue. When agents arrived at his home with a warrant, they sought the clothes he wore the day of the protest, his cellphone and other personal items. And they handcuffed him.

Mavalwalla, a former U.S. Army sergeant with PTSD from combat in Afghanistan, also worked as a former intelligence analyst and was among the first soldiers to serve in the U.S. Cyber Command. He helped evacuate from Kabul groups of Afghans who had worked with the U.S. military before the fall to the Taliban. He was able to raise thousands of dollars and obtain travel documents for them to safely flee to the United States, according to reporting from the Guardian. He has no criminal record and lives what had been a relatively quiet life in Washington.

“This is my son,” his father, Bajun Mavalwalla, told The Spokesman-Review in an interview. “But there’s a larger principle – my son went to war, he saw some horrible things over there and went through some terrible things… (Federal agents) should be going after bank robbers, should be catching people who are defrauding little old ladies out of their life savings, but instead are taken out to arrest a guy who’s got no criminal record.”

The decision to leave

Asked why he resigned, Barker told The Spokesman-Review that it wasn’t a decision he made lightly – he still loves the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Washington and will always value his 11 years there.

But there came a breaking point.

“I made the difficult decision to leave DOJ because I was concerned about the Department’s senior leadership in Washington D.C., staying true to the values of what we hold dear: upholding the rule of law without fear or favor,” Barker told The Spokesman-Review. “It is deeply troubling when prosecutors who disagree with senior DOJ leadership or express dissent are demoted or removed from the Department entirely.”

According to a January memorandum from the Trump administration, federal prosecutors are now required to pursue all immigration cases that are referred to them. If they decline, they must now report it to the Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys, or the main office in Washington D.C.

The refusal is a “clear implication that federal prosecutors who do not fully implement the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda will be punished and potentially removed from office,” according to an analysis from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Bajun Mavalwalla said Barker sounds “heroic” in his LinkedIn post and appears that way for resigning shortly before the indictment was signed, but that’s not how he sees it – he feels Barker left at a time when he “is going to let someone else prosecute people who shouldn’t be prosecuted” and doesn’t have the courage to “say what he knows.”

Even if Barker stayed, however, he may not have been able to change the outcome.

He became the acting U.S. attorney following the resignation of Vanessa Waldref, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden.

The Trump administration will make its own pick for the job to officially replace Waldref and recently forwarded the appointment of Pete Serrano to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.

Serrano, who ran unsuccessfully last year for Washington Attorney General, faces opposition to his federal appointment by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. She issued what is called “blue slip” against his appointment, a Senate rite that can be used to torpedo the pending appointments of some federal jobs such as U.S. attorneys.

During the first eight months of Trump’s presidency, the Department of Justice has seen upheaval under U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Trump has claimed that the DOJ was “weaponized” by Biden as it pursued criminal prosecutions against him, and some officials involved in his first-term administration. DOJ attorneys also won convictions against hundreds of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to prevent the congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential victory.

During his first days in office Trump issued clemency to about 1,500 people who participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Of those, about 600 people received full pardons.

In the following months Trump and Bondi fired many of the federal prosecutors and other officials who investigated the Jan. 6 participants.

Other high-ranking officials have left the Justice Department as a result of their concerns over political influence. The Trump-picked acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York resigned earlier this year in protest after the Justice Department instructed her to drop a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

In Spokane, it is possible that federal prosecutors could be targets for termination had they not pursued cases against the nine protesters, said Gonzaga Law professor and Constitutional law expert Michael Cecil.

“It would be consistent with the administration’s firing (and) admonishing attorneys challenging the administration’s agenda,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The U.S Attorney’s Office also did not respond to requests for comment regarding communication or orders from Washington D.C. regarding the prosecutions of the nine protesters. Serrano, the acting U.S. attorney, did offer an explanation how an indictment is generally filed and noted that the defendants from the June 11 protest are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

‘Running roughshod’

Mavalwalla II was raised on the premise of nonviolence and peace. His family members worked with Ghandi, the champion of Indian independence and nonviolent resistance activist before he was assassinated in 1948. Gandhi was godfather to Mavalwalla’s great-grandmother, the Guardian first reported.

“Citizens have an obligation to serve your country,” Mavalwalla said, “But that includes fighting injustice within one’s own country.”

His son wasn’t at the protest to cause trouble, he maintains, because violence isn’t in his blood. But civil disobedience, under their family’s premise of nonviolent resistance, can sometimes be necessary, he said.

It is the most honorable and moral act against injustice, Mavalwalla says, and his son knows that. It’s why he showed up to the local ICE office after former City Council President Ben Stuckart posted a call to action on Facebook. The older Mavalwalla said his son felt the detainment of two legal asylum seekers “was an injustice.”

“I feel the truth every day by this administration, but it’s a lot closer to home now,” Mavalwalla said about his son. “These are not new feelings about the Trump administration – that they’ve been running roughshod over the Constitution.”

Mavalwalla said the other eight Spokane protesters who were federally charged also don’t deserve to be where they are. The 30 people first arrested and charged in county court is an example of how far the criminal charges should have gone, he said.

Federal conspiracy charges are also a notoriously high bar to prove – one needs an agreement and an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy to prove a group agreed to commit a crime.

“Traditionally, (prosecutors) would use it very tightly,” Cecil said. “But the administration has shown no discretion … It’s not about getting a verdict, it’s about sending a message. It’s not as important for a conviction as it is to throw people into the procedural machinery of law and ask them to sink or swim.”

Prosecutors have already dropped nearly a dozen cases filed as part of Trump’s crime crackdown when he deployed National Guard troops to Washington D.C., the Washington Post reported.

Spokane’s nine arrests yield “consequences of a larger effort” from the Trump administration, Cecil said, calling people ensnared in Trump’s crime crackdown – especially immigrants with no criminal record – “political pinballs.”

“Selective enforcement of the DOJ allows attorneys to bring charges on tenured facts,” Cecil added. “You could ‘indict a ham sandwich’ if you wanted to … The executive branch has shown time and time again that they’re turning the screw.”

Barker chose not to comment on the ongoing cases against the nine Spokane protesters.

“I truly love the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and I greatly respect those who have devoted their careers to keeping Eastern Washington communities safe. Serving as a prosecutor and as the chief federal law enforcement officer for our district is something I always will cherish,” he said. “While people can and do disagree about specific cases, my experience always has been that the career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Washington make charging decisions based on the law and the evidence, not politics. These prosecutors are dedicated public servants, who care deeply about Eastern Washington communities.

“I am grateful that in my new role at Singleton Schreiber I have the opportunity to continue serving the community I love, while seeking justice on behalf of all those who call Eastern Washington home.”