Video shows an Oklahoma woman being interrogated by FBI agents regarding her social media posts, according to her lawyer. One of the alleged FBI agents is seen on video admitting to grilling Americans about social media posts “every day, all day long.”
Rolla Abdeljawad was reportedly confronted by FBI agents at her home in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Abdeljawad uploaded video of the alleged encounter with government agents on her Facebook.
Abdeljawad asked the agents for their credentials, but they refused. The agents would not provide the woman with their names when asked.
The FBI agents allegedly interrogated Abdeljawad over her posts on social media.
The agents said they have “concerns” about her posts on Facebook.
The agents tell Abdeljawad that Facebook had flagged some of her social media posts and provided the FBI with screenshots of the content.
Abdeljawad replied, “So we no longer live in a free country, and we can’t say what we want?”
An alleged agent responded, “No, we totally do. That’s why we’re not here to arrest you or anything like that.”
She replied, “Well, you can’t arrest me for freedom of speech. We live in America. So it’s kinda weird that you want to come and talk to me about me exercising my freedom of speech.”
The agent stated, “We do this every day, all day long. It’s just an effort to keep everybody safe and make sure nobody has any ill will or bad intent or anything like that.”
The woman said, “All I’ve done is exercise my right as an American citizen on a public social media platform with my personal opinions.”
Abdeljawad declared she wouldn’t speak with the FBI about the posts unless her lawyer was present.
“I’m definitely not going to have a talk with you,” she proclaimed.
The woman claimed to have confirmed that the people who confronted her were FBI agents by verifying it with local police.
The FBI defended the interrogation and told the Washington Times, “Every day, the FBI engages with members of the public in furtherance of our mission, which is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. We can never open an investigation based solely on First Amendment-protected activity. The FBI is committed to ensuring our activities are conducted with a valid law enforcement or national security purpose, and uphold the constitutional rights of all Americans.”
Abdeljawad regularly posts content on her Facebook that is anti-Israel and pro-Palestine.
Abdeljawad wrote on Facebook, “I’m a proud American Muslim. I will NOT be intimidated from being an advocate for the voiceless & the vulnerable nor will I be intimidated from upholding the constitution and exercising my right of free speech.”
Fox News reported, “It is unclear which posts caught the attention of the FBI, but Abdeljawad has made a series of posts in the past week expressing frustration about the ongoing war in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists, including referring to Israel as ‘Israhell.'”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said law enforcement may submit a request for user information.
“In responding to a matter involving imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person and requiring disclosure of information without delay, a law enforcement official may submit a request through the Law Enforcement Online Request System,” Meta stated in its help section.
Otherwise, law enforcement needs a subpoena, court order, or search warrant to gain access to a Facebook user’s account.
Abdeljawad’s Facebook is public, and viewable by anyone.
According to TechRadar, the U.S. government made requests for data from 236,000 Meta users in 2022, and the social media behemoth provided “at least some information in more than 88% of cases.”
Abdeljawad’s lawyer is Hassan Shibly, the founder of Muslim Legal – a law firm that finds “Islamic solutions to the Muslim community’s legal needs.”
Shibly wrote on the X social media platform, “You have the right never to speak to the FBI without a lawyer.”
He also advised his client not to have exited her house and force the FBI agents to obtain a search warrant.
Shibly told Reason, “It’s wrong what they did. Realistically, with where the community’s at, I don’t know if we have the bandwidth to go after them for it. More so, it’s, ok, continue to exercise your rights. If they do contact you again, they’re going to be hearing directly from us. We’re going to deal with it. We’re going to put them in check.”
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Source: TheBlaze
