FBI raids Cleveland offices of Ohio Organizing Collaborative Fbi Raid
FBI agents raided the Cleveland offices of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative on Thursday, and the ohio organizing collaborative fbi raid reached staff members’ homes across Ohio the same day. People briefed on the search said the agents carried some subpoenas and sought information and electronic devices. Members of the group contacted lawyers Thursday to assess their legal options.
Prentiss Haney on Thursday night
Prentiss Haney, a board member of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, said agents approached people connected to the group, including some who had done basic canvassing and volunteer work. He said the agents asked whether they were committing voter fraud at their doors, in front of their houses with their children, and that some people said the agents approached without warrants.
Haney described the visits as “basically trying to fish for information” and called them “Just straight-up intimidation tactics.” He said, “They had agents all across the state going to civil rights leaders’ and community leaders’ doors intimidating them, coming and demanding that they talk about literally anything they would ask.”
Ohio Organizing Collaborative
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative helps register voters in Ohio through grassroots, community-led programs, including its Democracy Builders initiative. It works in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati to help underrepresented communities register to vote, and it has also joined lawsuits challenging redistricting efforts and stand your ground laws.
The group’s work makes the raid more than an office search: the agents’ visits went beyond one building and touched people tied to its voter-registration network across the state. Haney said, “How can they distract and intimidate civil rights leaders and voters and community leaders who are helping people get registered to vote, and create a national spectacle about it?”
He added, “That is the only reason why they would choose to do that, do it now, in the middle of a contested political election in the state. There’s no other reason. They have no evidence of that.”
