Statement from Liz Wolf-Spada, Josh’s Mom

Thank you all for attending this very important event. I so much wish I could be there, but I cannot, as I am teaching young children about the freedoms our Constitution guarantees them.

Wednesday, I leave for Washington, DC to speak to our congressional representatives about the outrageous imprisonment of my son, Josh Wolf.

Today, as Josh becomes the journalist longest imprisoned for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury, I am unbelievably angry and grieved by this abuse of power by our federal government, specifically our federal judiciary.

Josh is standing up to a bully, the biggest bully around. All his life, he has been strong in principles and commitment to those principles. He has always stood up to bullies. As a journalist on his high school paper, he wrote articles in defense of gay rights. Not a very popular topic in a right wing conservative community. He had his car keyed in the school parking lot more than once. He did not back down.

He has indicated to me that he is willing to be in jail to prevent this from happening to others. He has never indicated any willingness to testify to this grand jury and there is little evidence at this point, that there even IS an active investigation of any federal crime.

Josh believes that the current witch-hunt for protestors who disagree with this administration’s policies is very similar to the communist witch-hunts of McCarthyism. He is correct. Labeling protestors “domestic terrorists” does nothing to secure our safety and takes away the civil liberties our soldiers are dying to protect. It is cowardice at best, to put a 24-year-old independent journalist in jail as a way of saying to the larger journalist community, “See all the power we have. You just better be careful, or you’ll be next.”

Well, they picked the wrong person. My son is strong in his belief that our US Constitution does indeed grant us the rights to a free press. They misjudged his character, his strength of will and they misjudged you, the larger community, made up, not just of family and friends, but of like minded American citizens who are rising up to say, “No, enough is enough. We want Josh released from jail. We want the subpoena rescinded and the civil contempt charge purged from his record.”

Thank you.

Liz Wolf-Spada