FBI agents are now visiting Charlottesville’s public defenders *at their homes*. It’s naked intimidation of our justice system. "It was before 7 a.m. on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend when the wife of Charlottesville public defender Donald Bellah, asleep inside the couple's rural Albemarle County residence, was awakened by two FBI agents. They told her they wanted to speak with her husband. Around that same time, other agents were arriving at other lawyers' homes. "There was no attempt to contact any one of us other than just showing up at our houses at the same time," Bellah told The Daily Progress. "I'm angry; it was intending to intimidate us." Bellah represented one of the two men detained April 22 inside the Albemarle County Courthouse in downtown Charlottesville by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That raid provoked widespread criticism after videos showed three ICE agents dressed in plain clothes refusing to show badges or arrest warrants to bystanders who questioned the men. One of the ICE agents wore a balaclava, masking his identity in possible contravention of Virginia law.
985