Army veteran faces conspiracy charges after participating in anti-ICE protest

[0:00] When a U.S. Army veteran was arrested on conspiracy charges for his role in an anti-ICE protest in [0:06] Spokane, Washington last summer, it was the first time an American had been charged with [0:10] conspiracy in connection with the ongoing ICE protests. Some legal experts saw it as an [0:16] escalation of the administration's efforts to suppress, even criminalize, First Amendment [0:20] rights. Special correspondent Aaron Glantz has the story, which was produced with the [0:25] support of the Pulitzer Center. [0:27] The sound of banging on Army veteran Bajan Malvawala's front door startled him awake [0:33] at 6 a.m. the morning of July 15, 2025. [0:38] Something's not right. And I went and I looked out the upstairs window. The street's all [0:43] closed off and there's a bunch of guys with rifles. [0:46] It was the FBI, and they had come to arrest him. [0:50] My dad very, very quickly after that was like, you know, Bajan, it's the FBI. They've got [0:54] a warrant. [0:55] Bajan was arrested for conspiracy for his role in it. [0:58] He was charged with anti-ICE protests more than a month earlier. [1:01] I'm an Afghanistan veteran. I'm an American citizen. [1:05] Bajan kept his cool in handcuffs while the FBI searched his pockets. [1:10] Have you been ready to write? [1:11] His father recorded this video. [1:13] My son is steady as a rock, saying, you know, he's an Afghanistan veteran, that this is [1:19] unjust. [1:20] If convicted, Bajan would face up to six years in prison. [1:24] I don't think that you really realize how far away we've come. [1:29] We've come from democracy until you open the door and see federal agents to arrest your [1:37] son for a nonviolent protest. [1:42] Bajan comes from a military family. His parents both served in the army. His father, Bajan [1:48] Ray Malvawala, a retired intelligence officer, earned three bronze stars in Iraq and Afghanistan. [1:55] He and Bajan served in Afghanistan at the same time. [1:58] I think that might be my favorite photograph in the entire world. [2:02] Younger Malvawala provided signals intelligence in Kandahar province, one of the most dangerous [2:08] parts of Afghanistan. His unit suffered casualties, including one time a fellow soldier stepped [2:15] on an IED. [2:16] There was three amputations, three traumatic brain injuries. I was maybe 10, 15 yards back. [2:25] My son's incredibly brave. He believes that you should do the things you're supposed to [2:29] do. [2:31] After coming home from the war, Bajan moved to the Pacific Northwest. He felt he'd be [2:34] able to do it. [2:35] He'd done his duty. Like many veterans, he said he wanted to find some peace. [2:40] I bought the land, and it's beautiful. There's tons of trees. Like, I've seen wolves on it. [2:46] There's been moose. There's been bears. You know, like, it's quiet. [2:53] But a few years later, in 2021, when Kabul fell to the Taliban, Bajan felt compelled [2:58] to serve again, this time out of uniform, volunteering to help dozens of America's Afghan [3:04] allies come to the United States. [3:06] Every single person here, except for the people who are indigenous to the Americas, [3:13] is an immigrant or comes from immigrants. It's absolutely ludicrous to think that we [3:18] can get away with not bringing people in, especially people who we told, hey, if you [3:23] help us, we'll help you. [3:24] Five weeks before his arrest, Bajan saw a Facebook post from the former president [3:30] of the Spokane City Council. Two men with pending asylum applications had been detained [3:35] at a routine ICE check-in. [3:37] And were going to be transported for deportation. [3:39] I am going to sit in front of the bus, he wrote. Feel free to join me. [3:44] Happened to be scrolling through and saw it pop up. And I was like, oh, well, I have [3:50] time. I'll swing by and see what's going on. I'm pretty upset about how this country [3:56] is treating immigrants. The people they rolled up were legal asylum seekers. They've been [4:02] doing everything right. There was no reason for them to be detained. [4:08] But at times it turned contentious. Bajan can be seen in this video briefly tangling [4:15] with mass federal agents. One ICE agent pushes Bajan in the back, knocking Bajan into another [4:22] who grabs him. Bajan and the agent shove each other and then disengage. Then demonstrators [4:28] back up and link arms to try to block the gate to stop ICE from taking the asylum seekers [4:34] away. Dozens of people were arrested, but Bajan wasn't among them. [4:40] Richard Barker, the acting U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington State, had monitored the [4:44] protests from his office on the other side of the Spokane River. [4:48] I went to bed that evening, feeling like the situation could have been a lot worse than [4:54] how it ended up. [4:55] Barker had worked for the DOJ for 11 years and focused on prosecuting drug smugglers [5:00] and murderers. But the day after the Spokane protests, the Justice Department sent him [5:06] and then 92 other U.S. attorneys nationwide a memo that said, you know what, we're not [5:09] going to let you in on this. But the police said, we're going to let you in on this. And [5:10] that's what they said. [5:10] that demanded they prioritize prosecutions of ICE protesters. [5:14] So Barker authorized an investigation. [5:17] His staff started preparing a conspiracy indictment [5:20] against Bajan Mavwala and eight others, [5:23] something Barker knew he couldn't support. [5:26] Nobody was really hurt. [5:28] None of the protesters were hurt. [5:30] Fortunately, none of the law enforcement officers [5:32] were hurt either. [5:33] He was aware that other U.S. attorneys had been ousted [5:36] for refusing to comply with Trump Justice Department orders, [5:40] and he worried about his ability to act ethically [5:43] if he stayed on the job, so he resigned. [5:46] I didn't feel in this case that a conspiracy charge [5:50] that would carry a six-year term of incarceration [5:54] was true to who I was or who I wanted to be [5:57] as a federal prosecutor. [5:59] Two days after Barker quit, [6:01] his successor signed the indictment, [6:03] charging Bajan and the others with conspiracy [6:06] to impede or injure a federal officer, [6:09] the first time conspiracy charges [6:11] had been brought against ICE protesters. [6:14] In a statement to the NewsHour, [6:16] the DOJ said it respects the First Amendment [6:18] and the right of Americans to peacefully protest, [6:21] but will never tolerate the obstruction [6:24] of lawful immigration operations [6:26] or putting federal agents in harm's way. [6:29] Should we go in? [6:29] The day he was arrested, [6:31] Bajan was getting ready to move into a new house. [6:34] He and his girlfriend, Kate, bought it with a VA mortgage. [6:37] This is the service uniform. [6:39] I, uh... [6:41] Nine years. [6:42] Kate's also an Afghanistan war veteran. [6:44] She deployed as a medic. [6:46] We're not weak people. [6:47] We are willing to fight for what is right, [6:50] which is, I mean, it's a First Amendment issue. [6:55] Bajan agrees and is standing his ground. [6:58] They say that you were part of a felony conspiracy [7:02] to impede or assault a federal officer. [7:05] Conspiracy requires people communicating [7:08] and, like, planning it out and, like, saying, [7:12] yeah, we're gonna do this, [7:13] and this is why we're gonna do it, [7:14] and this is how we're gonna do it. [7:15] None of that happened. [7:17] At least as far as, not as far as I know. [7:19] I wasn't part of any of it. [7:21] Since Bajan's arrest in July, [7:22] the use of federal conspiracy charges has spread. [7:25] Prosecutors have filed them against demonstrators in Chicago [7:29] and also investigated Minnesota Governor Tim Walz [7:33] and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry for the same crime. [7:36] What these people are doing to my son [7:38] and what they're doing all across the country [7:41] is unconscionable, and people need to know [7:43] about it. [7:44] How y'all doing today? [7:46] Inspired by Bajan's arrest [7:48] and concerned about what he sees as the misuse [7:50] of government authority, [7:51] his father announced in January [7:53] that he was running for Congress, [7:56] challenging Spokane's Republican incumbent. [7:59] It was a day after federal agents fatally shot [8:01] Renee Goode in Minneapolis, [8:03] and he stopped by a demonstration in Spokane. [8:06] This is me and my son in Afghanistan. [8:10] He was arrested by the FBI. [8:12] It's unconscionable, and it's un-American. [8:14] The shock of Renee Goode's killing also inspired [8:18] former acting U.S. Attorney Richard Barker [8:20] to speak out about what he sees as the government's hypocrisy. [8:24] This is his first on-camera interview since resigning. [8:27] In one instance, really nobody was hurt, [8:31] and the protesters were charged. [8:34] In another instance, somebody's life was taken, [8:37] and DOJ wants to give that person immunity. [8:40] These are things that are supposed to be fundamentally American. [8:43] These are the things that, when I joined the military, [8:45] these are the things that, when I joined the military, [8:46] I thought I was joining to protect. [8:49] You have a right, as an American, to voice your opinion. [8:54] You can't do it violently. [8:56] You can't do it in a way that harms other people. [9:00] But you have a right to stand up for what you believe in. [9:02] Oh, you got it! [9:03] Bajan's jury trial is scheduled for May 18th. [9:06] For PBS NewsHour, I'm Aaron Glantz in Spokane, Washington.