St. Petersburg Uhurus guilty of conspiracy, not guilty of acting as Russian agents

TAMPA — The Uhurus said their support of Russia was free speech. On Thursday, a federal jury said it was a crime.

After a weeklong trial that touched on complicated issues of national security, foreign relations and the limits of the First Amendment, a panel of eight men and four women found three members of the St. Petersburg-based African American activist group guilty of conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents. They were found not guilty of the more serious charge of acting as agents of a foreign government.

“The most important thing is they were unable to convict us of working for anybody except Black people,” Omali Yeshitela, the longtime leader of the Uhuru Movement and its umbrella organization, the African People’s Socialist Party, said afterward on the courthouse steps. “I am willing to be charged and found guilty of working for Black people.”

Behind him, a crowd of supporters raised fists and shouted “Uhuru!”

Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel, members of the group’s white allies, were also found guilty for their respective roles in what the federal prosecutors described as a seven-year conspiracy to sow discord and enflame American political tensions at the behest of Russia.

A fourth defendant, Augustus C. Romain Jr., a former Uhuru member who in 2018 founded the Atlanta-based Black Hammer Party, was also convicted.

The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. It was the lesser of the two charges. No sentencing date has been set.

The trial capped a two-year legal saga that began when FBI agents raided the Uhuru House in southern St. Petersburg, and several other properties connected to the group. An indictment handed down the same day detailed allegations that a Russian man, Aleksandr Ionov, had worked for years to foster relationships with American activist groups in an effort to enflame political tensions and sow discord in U.S. politics.

Ionov runs the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, an organization whose stated mission includes to support for Russian sovereignty and security. The organization is funded by the Russian government.

In 2015, Ionov invited Yeshitela to Moscow to discuss future cooperation. Prosecutors alleged he offered to pay the Uhuru Movement and spread their message to an international audience in return for their assistance in carrying out various actions and events.

Upon his return to the U.S., Yeshitela told other members of the African People’s Socialist Party that it appeared Inovo’s group was an “instrument of the Russian government” and that “does not disturb us.”

In the years that followed, the Uhuru Movement took on a decidedly pro-Russia bent. At Ionov’s behest, prosecutors said, they published Russian propaganda, including articles written by him in their newspaper, the Burning Spear, hosted him in videoconferences, and organized protests featuring Russian messaging and disinformation.

Ionov had a similar relationship with Romain’s group. Evidence presented at trial showed he enlisted Romain to organize three different protests in Atlanta and California, featuring pro-Russian messages.

Ionov also interacted with a third group, Yes California, which advocates for making California its own country.

The Uhurus were unaware that Ionov communicated regularly about his meddling in the U.S. with intelligence officers in Russia’s Federal Security Service. He issued reports about his activities with the Uhurus and other groups the agency and followed through on orders to carry out actions.

Prosecutors described him as a middleman between Russian intelligence and the Uhuru Movement, over which they said he exercised “direction and control.” The connection, the government argued, effectively made the Uhurus act as Russian agents.

The defense adamantly denied that Ionov controlled the group. They argued that the case was about censorship of political views critical of the U.S. All of the actions detailed in the indictment were protected under the First Amendment, the said.

“Omali Yeshitela is not for sale,” his attorney, Ade Griffin, told the jury in closing arguments.

Attorney Leonard Goodman, who represents Hess, called the case “dangerous” for free speech.

Among the evidence they highlighted was a Facebook message Yeshitela sent to Ionov in 2016. In it, he stressed that the nature of their cooperation with him was as “allies not employees.” The defense noted that Yeshitela and others sometimes refused to do things Ionov asked of them.

Romain, who represented himself through most of the trial, tried to suggest in cross examination of witnesses that the FBI targeted the group in a bid to silence criticism of President Joe Biden.

His questioning and arguments, which often veered off topic, drew frequent objections from prosecutors. At one point, he questioned why the FBI hadn’t arrested “bigger fish.”

“What kind of a fool arrests the small fish while letting the big fish go free?” he asked.

Romain relented in his self-representation only when it came time for closing arguments. His standby attorney, Mark O’Brien, delivered arguments on his behalf with scant time to prepare.

None of the jurors were African American, a fact not overlooked by the defense.

The panel originally included one Black woman, but she was dismissed after she did not appear at the start of the trial’s second week.

Nevel’s defense lawyer, Mutaqee Akbar, asked that the woman be replaced by an alternate juror who was also Black, saying he didn’t think the remaining panel would reflect a cross-section of the community. But the judge declined, citing federal court rules that state alternate jurors must replace jurors in the same sequence in which they were selected.

This is a developing story. Stay with tampabay.com for updates.