ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Three people indicted by the feds on charges of helping Russia influence a local election in St. Petersburg (Florida) declare their innocence in a news conference.
Uhuru movement leader Omali Yeshitela lives in St. Louis, but has been a vocal critic of police in St. Pete since he tore down a mural filled with racist stereotypes at City Hall in the 1960s. He says that all of his arrests since then have been about free speech.
Federal prosecutors in Tampa say Yeshitela was part of a Russian plot to "weaponize the First Amendment" by secretly supporting a candidate in the St. Petersburg city elections in 2019. At his lawyer's request, Yeshitela didn't get into specifics about alleged ties to co-defendant Aleksandr Ionov.
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