Lawyer for accused violent Antifa 'ringleader' asks judge to ban TPM reporter from San Diego trial, claims reporting is 'campaign of harassment'

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A San Diego courthouse crime reporter and contributor to The Post Millennial is being targeted by the defense attorney of an accused violent Antifa ringleader in an attempt to get her reporting censored.

Eva Knott, who also contributes to local weekly newspaper San Diego Reader, was the target of a legal motion by far-left San Francisco attorney John Hamasaki on Friday. Hamasaki asks the judge to strip her of her reporting and photography privileges inside the courtroom and to ban her because she works under a pen name. For safety reasons due to past coverage on gang-related criminal trials, Knott uses a pen name.

Hamasaki alleged in his motion: “[Knott] appeared at subsequent hearings and her request for media privileges was granted each time. Eventually [Knott] was granted permission to film and photograph the defendants’ faces without blurring their identities. [Knott] then shared those photographs with right-wing provocateur Andy Ngo, who published them and shared them on social media. After [Knott] shared the photographs of the defendants with Andy Ngo, defendants were subject to a campaign of harassment by right-wing extremists.”

Hamasaki did not present evidence the defendants were subject to a harassment campaign. He also asks the judge to force her to “destroy” previous court-approved recordings.

Knott and TPM editor Andy Ngo have been co-reporting on a series published in both TPM and the San Diego Reader about the on-going criminal case where 11 indicted defendants are accused by San Diego County prosecutors of belonging to a southern California Antifa cell that organized and carried out a violent attack on the public in January 2021. Six defendants have already pleaded guilty to multiple violent felonies. (Read the grand jury indictment here).

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