Justice Department reviewing conduct of paralegal who chased Kirstjen Nielsen from restaurant
by Steven Nelson
| June 21, 2018 02:50 PM
The Justice Department is reviewing the conduct of an employee who helped chase Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen from a Mexican restaurant on Tuesday, but First Amendment scholars say that she may be immune from workplace consequences.
Allison Hrabar, a Justice Department paralegal specialist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, helped organize a dozen-person DSA-led contingent that chanted “shame†at Nielsen until she left MXDC Cocina Mexicana.
Hrabar came under intense scrutiny following the downtown D.C. protest, and political opponents demanded that she be fired for protesting Nielsen's role in separating suspected illegal immigrants from their children — a policy President Trump partially reversed Wednesday.
Hrabar told the Washignton Examiner that as of about noon Thursday, she had not been disciplined. Asked if she still had a job, Hrabar said in a text message: “Yes! Currently at a team lunch."
A Justice Department official said, however, Hrabar’s conduct remains under internal review.
Experts say Hrabar is probably in the clear, though analysis depends on the legality of her protest and whether the restaurant requests charges for trespassing or disturbing the peace. Messages left with the business and its celebrity chef Todd English were not returned.
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