Jury Convicts Woman for Laughing During Sessions Hearing

A D.C. jury on Wednesday convicted an activist on criminal misdemeanor charges for laughing during Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ confirmation hearing earlier this year. Desiree Fairooz, 61, was protesting the January 10 hearing with other members of the Code Pink activist group—two of whom were also arrested for causing a disruption. According to government documents, Fairooz had two loud bouts of laughter as Sessions spoke positively of his own history with race relations. “Defendant Fairooz... let out aloud [sic] burst of laughter, followed by a second louder burst of laughter," the document read. A spokesperson for Code Pink, however, said the noise was more like a reflexive laugh “quieter than a cough.” Fairooz’s guilty charges for disrupting Congress could result in a sentence of six months in jail.