A reporter advancing 9/11 conspiracy theories in a heated exchange with advisers to Rudy Giuliani was arrested following Tuesday night's Republican debate.
Police in Goffstown, N.H., confirmed to RAW STORY that freelance reporter Matt Lepacek was arrested for trespassing following the debate at St. Anselm College in Goffstown. Lepacek was asking a Giuliani adviser about comments the former mayor made on ABC News on Sept. 11 that some say show he had foreknowledge that the World Trade Center would collapse.
Police refused to release more information about Lepacek's case prior to his first scheduled court appearance July 3.
Lepacek was reporting for Infowars.com, which advances theories about the government knowing in advance about the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Lepacek claimed to have press credentials issued by CNN, which sponsored Tuesday's debate. A CNN representative in charge of issuing credentials did not immediately return a phone call or e-mail from RAW STORY seeking comment.
Reports on Lepacek's arrest first appeared on Infowars.com and the Jones Report.
Witnesses said Lepacek and another reporter were physically assaulted by police and their camera equipment was damaged, according to those reports, which also included video of Lepacek's confrontation with Giuliani staffers.
"If this were 10 years ago, they'd be throwing pies in our face," the Giuliani staffer says to other assembled reporters after Lepacek is dragged away.
There is certainly some more information that has come out on this story. According to the Jones Report:
Jason Bermas, reporting for America: Freedom to Fascism, confirmed Lepacek had official CNN press credentials for the Republican debate. However, his camera was seized by staff members who shut off the camera, according to Luke Rudkowski, also a freelance Infowars reporter on the scene. He said police physically assaulted both reporters after Rudkowski objected that they were official members of the press and that nothing illegal had taken place. Police reportedly damaged the Infowars-owned camera in the process.
[....]
Though CNN staff members tried to persuade police not to arrest the accredited reporter-- in violation of the First Amendment, Lepacek was taken to jail. The police station told JonesReport.com that Lepacek is being charged with felony criminal trespass.
Lepacek did receive one phone call in jail which he used to contact reporter Luke Rudkowski. According to Rudkowski, Lepacek was scared because he had been told he may be transferred to a secret detention facility because state police were also considering charges of espionage against him-- due to a webcam Lepacek was using to broadcast live at the event. State police considered it to be a hidden camera, which led to discussion of "espionage."
Wearing a webcam at a press event is not an act of espionage. Alex Jones, who was watching the live feed, witnessed Lepacek announce that he was wearing a camera connected to a laptop that was transmitting the press conference live at approximately 9:20 EST. When Lepacek announced that he was broadcasting live, Giuliani staff members responded by getting upset at his questions and ordering his arrest.
Freedom to Fascism reporter Samuel Ettaro was also dragged out after asking a question on Giuliani's ties with Cintra and Macquerie, two foreign contractors involved with the contentious Trans-Texas Corridor under development in Texas.
Here is the video of Matt Lepacek being arrested by police. From YouTube:
The Student Scholars for 9/11 Truth also recorded the arrest and posted it through YouTube:
I also want to bring in two more comments from bloggers who attended the event. The first comment is from Gather blogger Peg C:
Last night, after the debate, while I was still in the Spin Room, I watched as a NH State Trooper and what I believe was a local Police Officer escorting two fellows out of the gymnasium.
Overheard buzz included speculation that one of these two had sprayed water or something on a campaign staffer, while the other videotaped it. That sounded absolutely absurd to me, but I didn't see the altercation. On the heels of Eric Alterman's arrest for alleged 'Criminal Tresspass', my first thought was that what I was witnessing was an awfully swift movement to remove another reporter from the spin room.
My second thought was that if this were some sort of protest action, if the spraying of a campaigner was a fact, then the location chosen for such an act was inappropriate, and removal would be warranted. That was quickly followed by a reigning in of my stream of consciousness, because really, I hadn't the first clue of what happened.
[....]
This morning, I watched this video, showing exactly what happened, leading up to what I witnessed last night.
[....]
Now that you've watched it, is your head exploding? Mine is. Matt Lepacek did nothing wrong. He wasn't physically intimidating any one. He was doing what any reporter would do, ask questions on a topic that is of serious interest to himself and his readers. He is a freelance journalist. As of publishing this article, I've seen no update on his status, as far as I know, the man is still under arrest. According to one article I read, found via Infowars.com, Alex Jones' website, which Lepacek was representing, there is even concern that he is being held on charges of espionage.
Whoa. Now, the only place that this has been noted is on the website I reference above, and on other blogs and websites referencing this.
[....]
A search of CNN, NBC, CBS, FoxNews all come up with nothing. NOTHING.
[cue the chirping crickets]
The second blogger who attended the event was fellow Gather blogger Chris Caesar, and had this say:
Infowars reporter Matt Lepacek was led out of the spin room by Goffstown PD last night, at the behest of a Giuliani staffer who didn't like the question he and his crew were asking of a spokesman.
When he tried to return to the room (he had legitimate press credentials) he was arrested by the police and charged with "criminal trespassing," a charge that the police decided to press post-arrest. This, despite a plea from CNN staffers not to arrest him.
I was just on Alex Jones's radio show -- the man behind infowars.com -- to offer my take on the brazenly illegal and undemocratic measures taken by Goffstown police last Tuesday. I can offer, from my personal experience, that the press at this event couldn't have any more contempt for citizen reporters and other protestors; thus, I felt obligated to follow Mr. Lepacek and the arresting officers with my audiotape and take pictures.
Now this is all the news and information that I could find regarding this story. And this story disturbs me on a number of levels. First, it disturbs me that a Giuliani staff member could have a credentialed freelance reporter arrested for asking tough questions regarding Giuliani's comments on the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Now I looked at Infowars homepage, and the site does seem to be a little more conspiracy minded than the rest of the mainstream media. But Lepacek was given a credentialed press pass by CNN, and had every right to ask his own tough questions to the Giuliani campaign regarding September 11th. The Giuliani campaign staff member, pollster Ed Goeas, badly handled the entire situation here. He could have simply dismissed Lepacek's questions, and then moved on to another reporter's question. Instead Goeas decided to confront Lepacek, even going to the point of telling Lepacek to "Back off!" Then Goeas ordered the police to arrest Lepacek. Even more crazy is that after Lepacek is led off by the police, Goeas laughs, and then asks, "Would the real press like to ask some questions?" There is this attitude within the Giuliani campaign that anyone who is not a part of the corporate media establishment, doesn't really deserve the constitutional freedom of the press to ask questions on the issues. It is a problem here because Goeas, or even the Giuliani campaign, really understands the rapid evolution of the news industry. We are now in the time of the "citizen journalist," where anyone can create their own news stories through blogs and web links. The American public is no longer limited to being spoon-fed their news through the big corporate news outlets. There are also hundreds of thousands of blogs that generate their own news and editorial content regarding the day's issues, including Infowars. Goeas and the Giuliani campaign cannot deal with these smaller outlets, the questions that they will ask, or even the news content they provide for their readership.
But there is more. What really concerned me here is how Lepacek's camera was seized by Giuliani campaign staff members. I can't say when Lepacek's camera was seized by Giuliani's campaign staff, or even if the camera was actually seized by the Giuliani staff. The YouTube video of Lepacek's arrest does not show the camera being seized. If Lepacek's camera was seized by a Giuliani campaign staff member, then this is a dangerous precedent. This is a journalist's equipment, just as any notebook is. A camera contains video information, and source citation covering an event or an issue. It is like having a politician, or campaign staff member taking a reporter's notebook. If that campaign staff member seizes a journalist's video camera, then the campaign can review the video on that camera, and possibly delete the video information which may embarrass the campaign. And if the Giuliani campaign can get away with taking or destroying a journalist's equipment, then how long do you think it will be before the other campaigns decide that they too, can get away with arresting, seizing, and destroying journalists' equipment?
This whole incident stinks. It scares me that the Giuliani campaign has contempt for the First Amendment rights to freedom of the press, arresting a freelance reporter for asking questions regarding 9/11. It scares me that instead of handling such questions with a little more tactfulness, the Giuliani campaign decided to confront the reporter, and then have that reporter arrested. This incident makes me wonder just how far a Giuliani administration will go in destroying our constitutional rights and our rights to a free press.
Update: YouTube user Thodal2000 has uploaded 9 videos showing Lepacek's arrest. Some of the video footage includes the live webcast of Lepacek's questioning of Goeas. Check it out.
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