Boom: Harmeet Dhillon Levels the WA AG After Troubling Remarks on Journos Investigating State's Daycares

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We've been covering the massive fraud scandal in Minnesota. 

But as we reported, independent journalists are also raising questions about daycare centers in Washington state. 

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Cam Higby and Jonathan Choe visited centers in that state, as Nick Shirley had done in Minnesota. 

READ MORE: Now This, Folks, Is Real Journalism: Independent Cam Higby Uncovers What Looks Like More Fraud in WA

You would think that the response from Washington officials would be, "Well, thanks very much! We'll get right on it, looking into that and making sure we stop any fraud." That's if they want to do the right thing, and are reading the anger of people in the room on this issue. 

But the response from state Attorney General Nick Brown was lacking at best. He claimed that people at the daycare centers are being harassed. 

My office has received outreach from members of the Somali community after reports of home-based daycare providers being harassed and accused of fraud with little to no fact-checking. 

We are in touch with the state Department of Children, Youth, and Families regarding the claims being pushed online and the harassment reported by daycare providers. 

Showing up on someone’s porch, threatening, or harassing them isn’t an investigation. Neither is filming minors who may be in the home. This is unsafe and potentially dangerous behavior. I encourage anyone experiencing threats or harassment to either contact local law enforcement or our office’s Hate Crimes & Bias Incident Hotline at 1-855-225-1010 or http://atg.wa.gov/report-hate. 

If you think fraud is happening, there are appropriate measures to report and investigate. Go to DCYF’s website to learn more. And where fraud is substantiated and verified by law enforcement and regulatory agencies, people should be held accountable.

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Knocking on the door isn't harassment. How can you investigate as a journalist, if you're not visiting these places? If all you're doing is relying on what the officials are saying, you're not doing much. How can you rely on their information, if the problem may be they haven't been catching things? 

But perhaps more importantly, many thought this response was an attempt by WA to chill the effort of the journalists. 

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon was not having it, based on her response on X.

"ANY state official who chills or threatens to chill a journalist’s 1A rights will have some ‘splainin to do. @CivilRights takes potential violations of 18 USC § 242 seriously!  Govern yourselves accordingly! #1A," she warned. 

Brown responded with Democratic Default Mode #1: whenever put on the spot for their own actions, try to deflect by blaming President Donald Trump. But Harmeet put him away. 

Brown claimed they "quite obviously haven’t threatened anyone, especially not journalists. But maybe you need to have a hard conversation with your bosses." No, it's not obvious at all. 

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Dhillon finished him: 

I’m a former journalist. Deep staters like you are always threatened by a free press. But thank you for confirming, after deflection, that journalists are free to ply their craft and expose the fraud you have failed to identify, much less punish, in your state! Happy new year!

Boom, from the top rope. 

Translation? You're now on notice, buddy, and I know you got the message. 

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