![](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2017.05\/thumbnail\/590ba210c36188e9428b45b9.jpg\")
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A Washington jury has convicted a Code Pink activist of disorderly conduct after she laughed in a Senate confirmation hearing for Attorney General Jeff Sessions. She was also charged with \u201cparading,\u201d combined charges that could result in 12 months in jail.<\/p>\n
The jury\u2019s conviction of 61-year-old Desiree Fairooz was announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur jury found me guilty of each count, and each count carries a maximum sentence of six months in prison,\u201d<\/em> Fairooz told RT. \u201cI have been judged not on the initial laughter, but that was why I was removed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Fairooz said Sessions had already entered the Senate hearing room in January, where she, along with other members of Code Pink, were dressed as Lady Liberty in pink togas, with foam tiaras that said Code Pink, were holding plastic torches \u201creminiscent of the Statue of Liberty.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAt the time of my arrest, we were seated, the hearing had begun, and Senator Richard Shelby (R, Alabama) was tasked with making compliments about Senator Sessions, and one of them seemed ridiculous to me and I involuntarily laughed,\u201d<\/em> Fairooz said.<\/p>\n What caused the laughter was Shelby\u2019s assertion that Sessions had a \u201cclear and well-documented\u201d<\/em> history of \u201ctreating all Americans equally under the law.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n In 1986, Sessions had been denied a federal justice post because of a history of racially charged remarks. Senate Shelby had even campaigned himself against Sessions by running an ad campaign that suggested Sessions was a Ku Klux Klan sympathizer.<\/p>\n Fairooz said it was a small laugh, more like a chortle, but it was enough to prompt a Capitol police officer to come over to her.<\/p>\n \u201cI expected her to say, \u2018Ma\u2019am, please lower your voice,\u2019 when unexpectedly she told me I was being ejected, and I needed to come with her,\u201d<\/em> Fairooz said.<\/p>\n During her trial, however, prosecutors said she “let out a loud burst of laughter, followed by a second, louder burst.”<\/em><\/p>\n Fairooz said three other police officers joined the first one and started to move her out of the Senate hearing, at which point she started protesting.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy am I being taken out of here?\u201d<\/em> she asked as she was arrested. \u201cThis man is pure evil. Don\u2019t vote for Sessions. I was going to be quiet, and now you\u2019re going to have me arrested? For what?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Police booked her, along with two other protesters, and she was later charged by the government with \u201cdisorderly and disruptive conduct\u201d for her laugh, as well as second charge for \u201cparading, demonstrating, or picketing within the Capitol,\u201d<\/em> as she was being led out.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was fair. It was unjust. I was there as a citizen and should have been allowed to remain,\u201d<\/em> Fairooz told RT.<\/p>\n Fairooz said the Senate officials\u2019 initial reason for ejecting her was the laughter and it was when Capitol police dragged her out of the room that they \u201cparaded me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n