Ole Miss students and members of the Oxford community gather in the Circle to protest the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and to protect the Mueller investigation on Thursday night. Photo by Christian Johnson

On-campus protest defends Mueller investigation

A couple dozen students and community members gathered at 5 p.m. Thursday night at the Circle on campus as part of a nationwide day of protests to protect Robert Mueller, special counsel of the Trump-Russia investigation.

Ole Miss students and members of the Oxford community gather in the Circle to protest the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and to protect the Mueller investigation on Thursday night. Photo by Christian Johnson

The event was called โ€œNobody is above the law โ€” Mueller protection rapid responseโ€ and was organized by MoveOn, an activist group that promotes โ€œsocial justice and political progress.โ€

The protest kicked off with chants of โ€œNo Trump, no KKK, no fascist U.S.A.โ€ and โ€œProtect Muellerโ€™s investigation.โ€

Jordan Butler, a second year law student and host of Oxfordโ€™s protest, said a large reason for the gathering was former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessionsโ€™ firing and the promotion of Matthew Whitaker to acting attorney general.

โ€œ(Whitaker) has written that he thinks it would be better for backlash purposes to just pull all funding from Mueller and refuse to let him indict anyone,โ€ Butler said. โ€œWeโ€™re here to protect Bob Muellerโ€™s investigation.โ€

Seth Dickinson, a first year law student, said he attended the protest because he sees the law as something worth โ€œfighting for.โ€

โ€œWhen we started at the law school, the first thing they told us is the law applies to everybody,โ€ Dickinson said. โ€œSeeing whatโ€™s happening now, I understand that and having almost three fourths of a semester of knowledge of the law, I realize Iโ€™ve got to fight for it.โ€

Butler said the group was just there to have their voices heard and show dissatisfaction with Muellerโ€™s investigation potentially being compromised.

โ€œI would just say itโ€™s a huge conflict of interest on Trumpโ€™s part to put someone into this position who has previously called it a witch hunt, and (because of Whitakerโ€™s) previous stance on the Mueller investigation and who he would be directly overseeing,โ€ first year law student Abby Carter said. โ€œYou canโ€™t just fire someone because theyโ€™re investigating you.โ€

LOU community members gather in the Circle to protest the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and to protect the Mueller investigation on Thursday night after the activist group MoveOn organized hundreds of demonstrations across the country. Photo by Christian Johnson

Thursday eveningโ€™s protest began mere minutes after sundown, but Butler said he was told at first that the protesters would โ€œhave to leave as soon as itโ€™s dark enough (they) become a safety concern.โ€ A few University Police Department officers stood nearby, without intervening, as the protest went on well past sundown.

โ€œWe (the LOU community) love to support organization and the congregation of the Oxford community when it serves us, but whenever itโ€™s something that goes against the social grain, we want to try and put that in a box or like put a cap on that before itโ€™s something we donโ€™t want to hear,โ€ Carter said, mentioning that people attending sporting events are not immediately asked to leave even if itโ€™s after dark.

โ€œThey say we canโ€™t protest or gather after dark,โ€ Dickinson said. โ€œOur exact purpose is to bring some light to this subject.โ€

In the end, there was no intervention by police. The protest concluded at 5:40 p.m., with a protester announcing that the demonstration will continue at 2 p.m Friday afternoon at the Oxford Courthouse on the Square.

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