The Department of Justice will retry a woman whom prosecutors say disrupted Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing for attorney general by laughing.
After rejecting a plea deal, Desiree Fairooz will again face charges of unlawful conduct for disrupting Sessions’ hearing in January.
According to court records, Fairooz rejected a deal offered by prosecutors that would have required her to plead guilty in exchange for a recommended sentence of time served.
Fairooz was detained after audibly laughing after Sen. Richard Shelby told senators at Sessions’ confirmation hearing that the then-Alabama senator had a record of “treating all Americans equally under the law.”
Her laughter lasted seconds and Shelby continued with his speech without acknowledging the disturbance.
In a statement, Fairooz said she let out a spontaneous “reflexive noise” because Shelby’s description was not true.
“It was an immediate rejection of what I considered an outright lie or pure ignorance,” she said.
Fairooz was previously convicted of a misdemeanor connected to disrupting the hearing, but a judge threw out the guilty verdict in July and ordered a new trial.
The new trial is scheduled to begin on November 13.
