there has been an ongoing federal trial in tampa accusing this group of a crime, convicting them but saying at the same time they aren't guilty. very curious;

In the last week, I have been writing about the federal prosecution of a group named the African People’s Socialist Party and its related Uhuru movement:

A Federal Prosecution in Florida Is Keeping Us Safe from the Russkies
First They Came for the Communists
Tampa Trial on Free Speech Exposes U.S. Hypocrisy

The group has long criticized the U.S. national-security state and its foreign policy, including with respect to Ukraine, and the feds retaliated by prosecuting the group for failing to register as agents of the Russian government. The feds alleged that the defendants were doing the bidding of the Russian government by “sowing discord” in America’s political process by promoting political views that were contrary to those of the U.S. government and favorable to those of the Russian government.

Yesterday, the jury returned with a truly bizarre verdict — (1) not guilty of failing to register with the U.S. government as Russian agents but (2) guilty of conspiring to fail to register with the U.S. government as Russian agents.

The second charge — the conspiracy charge — arises out of a catchall federal offense that is always added to every federal criminal indictment. The conspiracy offense makes it a crime for people to agree to commit another offense. (I’ve sometimes wondered whether it’s a federal crime to conspire to conspire to commit an offense.)

The main benefit of the conspiracy charge is that it enables federal prosecutors to offer a plea bargain to the people who are indicted. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of 5 years, which is oftentimes less than the penalty for the substantive charges. For example, the penalty for not registering as a Russian agent is 10 years.

Yesterday, the jury acquitted the defendants of the substantive charge. That is, they found them not guilty of failing to register as agents of the Russian government. But that necessarily means that the jury found that the defendants were not agents of the Russian government. If the jury had found that they were agents of the Russian government, they would have had to convict them for failing to register as agents of the Russian government.........more.........