White House heckler will not be prosecuted

Remember that woman who screamed at President Bush as he welcomed Chinese President Hu Jintao to the White House in April? Wang Wenyi heckled President Hu in protest of China's persecution of the Falun Gong religious group. She pleaded with President Bush to intervene.

Well, Ms. Wang has reached a plea agreement to avoid prosecution.

Yes, you read that correctly. The woman had to enter into a plea agreement to avoid prosecution for the crime of having said something.

Wang Wenyi faced a misdemeanor charge of intimidating, coercing, threatening and harassing a foreign official for interrupting the April 20 event in which President Bush welcomed Hu to the White House. She could have faced six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Her attorney, David Bos, told U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge John Facciola at a hearing Wednesday that he and prosecutors had reached a deal to dismiss the charges.

Wang, 47, said she is prohibited from confronting any foreign officials over the next year. The case will be continued until then, and if she has not committed any felonies — including confronting foreign officials — the charges will be dropped, said Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

"Today is not the important thing," Wang said. "The important thing is all the Falun Gong practitioners who are losing their lives."

It is undeniable that Ms. Wang harassed President Hu. However, only in the broadest possible use of the terms could she be said to have intimidated, coerced or threatened him.

As the Washington Post's Dana Milbank wrote at the time,

... 90 seconds into Hu's speech on the South Lawn, the woman started shrieking, "President Hu, your days are numbered!" and "President Bush, stop him from killing!"

Bush and Hu looked up, stunned. It took so long to silence her -- a full three minutes -- that Bush aides began to wonder if the Secret Service's strategy was to let her scream herself hoarse. The rattled Chinese president haltingly attempted to continue his speech and television coverage went to split screen.

It is not as though Ms. Wang screamed, "President Hu, I'm going to shoot you in the face, just like Dick Cheney shot that old man when he was drunk!" She issued a rhetorical assault on his political leadership. Rude? Certainly. But, a crime? Please.

When the freedom of speech has to be negotiated with the state, speech is no longer free.