Kat Abughazaleh shows us how to fight fascists

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MARISA KABAS, THE HANDBASKET: How did it feel waking up this morning?

KAT ABUGHAZALEH: I had to get up at like 5am to go on Morning Joe, but I woke up and I was like, oh yeah, I don't have to go to trial this week—which is not a statement I thought I'd have to say ever in my life.

KABAS: Walk us through what you thought the next week or so was supposed to be like before yesterday’s hearing.

ABUGHAZALEH: I was supposed to have not just trial prep with my lawyers, but having to get my clothes dry cleaned. Going to get a manicure because my nails always always look awful. I spent way too long at a Nordstrom Rack picking out shoes that I thought looked fashionable but also modest and wouldn't make jurors think I was a bitch. On Tuesday we were supposed to have jury selection. On Wednesday we were supposed to have opening arguments, which is a shame that we don't get to hear our lawyers spit absolute fire. But yeah, it's nice not to do it in the first place.

KABAS: Absolutely. So what do you think you're gonna do instead?

ABUGHAZALEH: I have a 12-hour live stream tomorrow to raise money for our legal funds because, despite not having to go to trial, we're still picking up the pieces of our lives both emotionally and financially. Every single one of us as co-defendants, we have very real fears of bankruptcy and being in debt for the rest of our lives because of this. And then, I don't know, sleep a bunch. Get my passport renewed, something that I couldn't do for the last seven months. I couldn’t even go to Alaska.

KABAS: Are you serious? Could you go to Hawaii?

ABUGHAZALEH: No, just the lower 48. Couldn't even go to Puerto Rico.

KABAS: So this has really restricted your movement as a human being for the last seven months.

ABUGHAZALEH: Yeah, and it's something that's really scary, especially as the government gets more and more aggressive, just being like, oh, you're stuck here no matter what happens.

KABAS: So when did you get a sense that things might be changing this week?

ABUGHAZALEH: So we've been requesting to see the grand jury transcripts or just have the judge look at them for months. And ahead of trial Chris Parente—Brian Straw's lawyer—just asked the judge, “Can you just look at the unredacted version?” And her understanding was that the redactions were referring to some IT issues, and the prosecution had never corrected her. So she looked at the unredacted transcript and then called a hearing the next morning. And it was sealed. Now the transcript is public. 

She was saying “I'm not sure that the charge will get dismissed without prejudice because there's not a lot of precedent for that, especially for a misdemeanor.” And then we broke for an hour for the government to talk it over, and then they came in. I remember one of my lawyers looking at me as one of the government’s lawyers [Andrew Boutros] started talking, and she just turns to me and says, “Congratulations.” And I went, “What?” And then Boutros said, “dismissed with prejudice.” [Meaning the case was permanently closed.]  And it was just surreal. Absolutely surreal.

KABAS: Did you have a sense of where things were heading or were you totally shocked by the outcome?

ABUGHAZALEH: I truly did not think it would get dismissed yesterday. I did not want to get my hopes up. I thought that we were going to trial for sure, just because it's very unusual to try a federal misdemeanor. I knew we would win in that case, but I was completely shocked.

KABAS: How do you think this will change or impact anti-ICE protests and prosecutions in the future?

ABUGHAZALEH: I hope that it does have impact. It was meant to intimidate us into silence, and none of us took a deal. None of us sold each other out (not that there was anything to sell each other out on.) But, you know, we were charged with conspiracy. We were facing like 10 years in prison. 

KABAS: How's Ben feeling about all this? [Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion, is Abughazaleh’s partner and has been with her through this whole experience. He’s also a friend of The Handbasket.]

ABUGHAZALEH: He's feeling good! The hearing was so sudden. He was out of town and he's been at everything—every single hearing—and I was like, you don't have to fly in early because it's not gonna get dismissed. And then it just happened, and he changed his flight to make sure he could be here to celebrate with me. 

It's been really stressful for both of us. It's been really scary. I mean, I'm sure you get this, harassment from weird right wing weirdos. It's always easier when it's happening to you, as opposed to when it's happening to someone you love. And Ben's had to be doing that double time. Not just with the case, but also the campaign. For the first time in over a year, I got to wake up and not worry about jail or a national campaign—and neither did Ben.

KABAS: Yea, Ben posted something on Bluesky about how hard this has been on both of you and your families and just your whole circle. Were there any specific threats or situations that particularly worried you?

ABUGHAZALEH: When I got thrown really hard by that ICE agent, which was like the 3rd time it had happened, it went super viral; I think because of the noise that it made when my body hit the pavement. DHS was posting about me after. That was really scary. It was scary for my parents, it was scary for me. We were all considering staying in hotels. There's been weird shit in our inboxes, in our physical mail. The right has a bloodlust to imprison dissenters. Once you're a target of the right, as you know, you never really stop.

KABAS: So you were running a national campaign at the same time that you were fearing possibly being convicted and going to prison. What was that experience like?

ABUGHAZALEH: It was awful because we're also trying to balance going to court. There were some big campaign things that I couldn't go to because I had to be in a courtroom or I had to be booked by the FBI. And there was also the financial question of—you know, we raised a lot of money through the campaign for our legal fees, but it ended up not being enough. And it was so stressful and my staff was unbelievably kind and flexible and good at their jobs. When we launched our campaign, a lot of people didn't think we could even break 5% and I believe we beat five elected officials, got closer to first place than second, and it took an indictment, AIPAC money, weird backroom fuckery, and a dark money influencer scheme to beat us. And there's a sense of satisfaction in that.

KABAS: You mentioned that you raised money but it wasn't enough. How much did the legal fees end up costing overall?

ABUGHAZALEH: We're looking at about at max of $250,000—that is with both Andre's and my legal teams working at a reduced rate. That also includes personal debt accrued from financial decisions, like I am not paying off this debt so that way I can pay legal fees. Then if there's anything left over, because now the calculus is different with no trial, we will be donating it to the National Lawyers Guild.

KABAS: How much money do you have to raise to break even?

ABUGHAZALEH: Another $90k. But I'm just grateful for all the support we've gotten. I'm absolutely blown away. [Editor’s note: Abughazaleh said on Sunday that between the fundaising livestream and GoFundMe donations, they were only about $30k away from goal.]

KABAS: So where does one go from here?

ABUGHAZALEH: That's a really great question. Andre and I have, along with two other of our campaign staffers, started this organization Kapow, where we're helping integrate mutual aid and direct action into politics. And it's been kind of a bummer because we’ve wanted to be all in but haven't been able to because we had to fundraise instead for our legal fees and focus on trial prep. So we're really excited to get into that, but really, this case isn't over. We still have so much to learn about misconduct from the prosecutors. We still have so much to learn about what happened behind closed doors. We are going to pursue any avenue we have to recuperate legal costs, but that's a very long, difficult, and definitely not guaranteed process.

In the meantime, I'm gonna take some time to like, be a person again. And by some time I mean like 3 days because I still have to work to live and pay off debt. Every single one of us co-defendants have had different and similar traumas when it comes to this case. And we have to pick up the pieces of our lives that the government broke.

KABAS: Would you ever run for office again?

ABUGHAZALEH: I have no idea. I used to just be like, no, but then it was a huge bummer for a bunch of people, and I don't know. The reason I ran was because I felt like our leaders were failing. Maybe something will change and they'll stop failing us. That would be really cool. So for now I just say I don't know. Also it's fun when you wanna make people scared of you running for office again.

KABAS: Say more about that.

ABUGHAZALEH: There's a rumor right now that I'm gonna run for mayor of Chicago, and I think it's the funniest thing in the world. I've never told anyone that in my life. And I'm like, why would I do that? But it's like something that I've heard from people who really hate me and they're terrified about it.

KABAS: At this point your existence is a threat.

ABUGHAZALEH: Right, and so might as well just leave the door open. Maybe I mean it, maybe I don't. But if it makes them sweat, sure. Maybe.