Ruby Montoya is doing whatever she can to lighten her punishment after publicly admitting to a string of arson and sabotage attacks against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in 2017, including potentially cooperating with the FBI. unicornriot.ninja/2021/ruby-mont…
According to a recent article in The Economist, “Montoya agreed to cooperate with the FBI” in fall 2020. During such FBI debriefs, agents typically attempt to solicit information on other activists and pressure co-defendants to testify against each other.
Since summer 2021, Montoya’s lawyer, Daphne Silverman, has repeatedly filed motions on her behalf asking the court to allow her to file documents under seal.
A practice typically avoided by those facing political charges in an effort to be transparent.
A practice typically avoided by those facing political charges in an effort to be transparent.
Silverman struck a blow against movement lawyering in August when she filed a motion seeking to withdraw Montoya’s guilty plea and accusing Montoya’s former attorney, Lauren Regan, of a conflict of interest stemming from her commitment to concepts like “solidarity.”
In the motion, Silverman claimed that rather than approach the case with her client’s best interest in mind, Regan had coerced Montoya into accepting the plea for political reasons.
The National Lawyers Guild Federal Repression Taskforce condemned Silverman, who is a Guild member, for her attacks on movement lawyering and called for her expulsion from the Guild.
Over four years later, as Montoya continues to deny responsibility for the actions she took, a fragmented climate justice movement seeks to define its values.
In the crucible of state repression, where concepts like “movement lawyering” and “solidarity” can define futures, the Montoya case may now be laying the groundwork for what’s to come. Read more here: unicornriot.ninja/2021/ruby-mont…
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