Judge: No prison in Uhuru-Russian conspiracy case; ‘This was political speech’

TAMPA — A federal judge said Monday that he is not inclined to give prison time in the case against members of the St. Petersburg-based Uhuru Movement, who were convicted in September of conspiring to act as Russian agents.

In a sentencing hearing Monday for Augustus C. Romain Jr., a former member of the Black activist group and one of the four convicted defendants, U.S. District Judge William Jung said their conduct ultimately amounted to the exercise of free speech.

“Everything they did here was political speech,” Jung said. “I eminently disagree with all of it. These people spit on this flag that actually protects them.”

The judge sentenced Romain, 38, to five years’ probation, declining the five-year prison sentence prosecutors had sought. He said he believed there had already been enough punishment in the case.

The prosecutors did not comment on the judge’s sentence, but looks of disappointment crossed their faces as Jung explained his reasoning.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Marcet emphasized that the defendants wanted to hurt America.

“They went into this with their eyes wide open, knowing that the purpose was to help the Russian government harm the United States,” Marcet said.

The judge, though, noted that despite their rhetoric, nothing the defendants did harmed anyone.

“No one went and burned down the draft office,” he said. “No one was injured. No one was damaged.”

Jung nevertheless commended the prosecution team for their skill in handling a difficult case. He said he believed the trial produced a fair result. At the same time, the judge said the law requires wide breadth be given to political speech “or it gets chilled.”

“We have to go a long way to make sure we’re not punishing you for saying repulsive words,” he told Romain.

Romain, who has been jailed for more than a year, showed no outward reaction to the decision. He will be able to walk free, though he faces unrelated criminal charges in Georgia, where he now lives.

The government will be able to appeal the sentence.

The three other defendants convicted in the case are scheduled for a separate sentencing hearing next week. They include Omali Yeshitela, the longtime leader of the Uhuru Movement and its umbrella organization, the African People’s Socialist Party, and Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel, leaders of the group’s white allies.

The group has been a presence in St. Petersburg for decades. They’ve taken broad and radical stances, advocating for things like the release of all Black prisoners and the creation of a single Black socialist government. But they’ve also focused on local issues, pressing city officials on things like the construction of Tropicana Field in a predominantly Black area and demanding retribution after the 1996 police killing of TyRon Lewis.

The four were convicted in a September trial on charges of conspiracy to act as agents of the Russian government without notifying the attorney general. A jury delivered not-guilty verdicts for the more serious charge of acting as Russian agents.

The government accused the group of acting for seven years on behalf of the Russian government to spread propaganda and sow political discord in the U.S.

Evidence showed the group communicated regularly with a Russian man, Aleksandr Ionov, who runs an organization called the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia. Ionov, in turn, regularly reported on his activities to Russian intelligence agents. With funding from the Russian government, Ionov worked to develop relationships with American activists and separatist groups to exploit and enflame U.S. political divisions.

The Uhurus became part of those efforts. The government presented evidence showing that Yeshitela and others worked at Ionov’s direction, organizing protests and featuring pro-Russian messaging and propaganda in their newspaper, The Burning Spear.

Romain, who goes by the name Gazi Kodzo, left the Uhurus in 2018. He then started his own group in Atlanta, dubbed the Black Hammer, which continued to communicate with Ionov.

As leader of the Black Hammer, Romain organized multiple demonstrations, including one outside CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta. The demonstration featured Russian flags and rhetoric parroting Russian and anti-American propaganda. Prosecutors said Romain recruited homeless people to participate in his demonstrations, which tended to be short-lived.

At sentencing, the judge noted their ineffectiveness.

“This was not the revolutionary army marching down the street,” he said. “This was four guys with a bullhorn and a puppy dog wrangling up people and protesting. It wasn’t quite the long march of Chairman Mao.”

He added that though the Uhurus and their allies make statements condemning the U.S., “they would never find a country that’s any better.”

“That’s what makes us so great,” he said. “You can say this stuff.”

In a memo filed ahead of Romain’s sentencing, Marcet highlighted some of the more startling aspects of the defendants’ conduct.

In particular, he noted that in 2015, the Russians offered to create a website for Yeshitela’s group to operate that would feature the pictures, names and addresses of police officers, judges and other public figures, to encourage harassment against them. Yeshitela “enthusiastically informed” the rest of the group about the proposal, Marcet wrote. Romain suggested the website be called “Pigs in Our Hood.”

Despite the discussion, it appeared the Russian government never followed through on creating the website.

Aside from the free speech issues, the judge voiced concern that the defendants did not know of the legal requirement that they were to register with the attorney general as foreign agents. In a written order denying a defense request to throw out the guilty verdicts, Jung wondered how they could conspire to violate a law of which they were not even aware.

Still, he urged Romain to change his ways. He called him a “smart guy” with potential for a successful career.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said. “You don’t have to keep getting in trouble.”

He ordered Romain, as a condition of probation, to have no contact with anyone in any foreign government.

“Please don’t think for a minute that anyone agrees with the substance of what you did,” the judge said.

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