Reporter Arrested For Asking Trump Cabinet Member Tom Price And Kellyanne Conway A Question

Dan Heyman, a reporter for Public News Service, said he was arrested at the West Virginia State Capitol after trying to ask Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and his colleague Kellyanne Conway whether domestic violence is considered a preexisting condition under the House-passed TrumpCare bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare, reports The Hill.

A video of the arrest, shot by Valerie Woody with the West Virginia Citizens Action Group. 3/3 pic.twitter.com/Q1bOSotNEe

— Eric Tegethoff (@EricTegethoff) May 9, 2017

“Our First Amendment rights are under attack every day, particularly from the Trump administration,” said ACLU-WV legal director Jamie Lynn Crofts from the steps of the West Virginia capitol building around 8:45pm. “And it’s not surprising to me that an incident like this would happen when a reporter tried to ask a question of a member of the Trump administration. They have shown us every day since Donald Trump took office that they don’t care about the First Amendment, or the free press. Today was just another example of that. It’s horrifying.”

BREAKING: Dan Heyman from @PNS_News has been arrested at the WV State Capitol by Capitol Police for trying to ask Secretary Price a question

— ACLU of WV (@ACLU_WV) May 9, 2017

Upon his release around 10:30pm, Heyman and his lawyer Tim DiPiero spoke to reporters. “I think it’s dreadful. This is my job!” Heyman said.

In a statement to Esquire.com, Heyman’s editor Lark Corbeil said:

According to the criminal complaint by the capitol police, Heyman was “aggressively breaching the secret service agents to the point where the agents were forced to remove him a couple of times from the area walking up the hallway in the main building of the Capitol. The defendant was causing a disturbance at Ms. Conway and Secretary Price.”