Trump administration accused of altering translation of request to extradite wealthy leftwing activist

Attorneys for jailed wealthy leftwing donor James “Fergie” Chambers accused the Trump administration of making “malicious” and “bad faith” changes to legally required translations from English to Spanish in its extradition request to Spain, adding words like “violent”, “detonate” and “fires” that are not in the original text.

Chambers’ legal team also identified multiple instances where the US translation from English to Spanish created more serious legal accusations against Chambers than were indicated in the original text for his alleged involvement in paying the legal fees of activists who participated in a 2023 protest against Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.

Chambers’ case is the first known instance of the US seeking to extradite a citizen over alleged support for Hamas, an accusation apparently tied to a money laundering charge and donations Chambers has made to support Palestinians, including the Sameer Project, in Gaza.

The attorneys have filed a last-minute request to the National Court of Spain asking for a new translation and for the court to recognize the “bad faith” actions of the US, after also learning this week that Chambers’ extradition hearing has been scheduled for 13 November.

The Guardian has seen the 21-page request, filed Tuesday. It includes multiple, detailed examples of what the legal defense team calls a “translation [that] has fictitiously added incriminating acts, in presumed bad faith”.

The goal, the attorneys assert, is “to lead Spanish authorities to commit errors in evaluating the facts [of the case] and in deciding about the extradition”.

Both Spanish law and the extradition treaty between the US and Spain require extradition requests to be translated into Spanish by the requesting country.

“This is scandalous – in 20 years of practice, I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Aitor Martínez, one of Chambers’ lawyers, adding that the “shameful” translation joined a growing list of irregularities in the Trump administration’s handling of the case – including the FBI taking Chambers’ phone, in apparent violation of Spanish law and international extradition treaty, reported on by the Guardian last month.

The translations in question come from the criminal complaint and related documents underpinning the US extradition request.

It was recently revealed that there is no indictment behind the complaint, meaning the federal government hasn’t had a grand jury evaluate evidence against Chambers and instead is seeking his extradition based on the affidavit of a single FBI agent, the basis for the sealed complaint.

Two of the three charges in the complaint – riot and conspiracy to riot – are related to allegations that he helped fund the legal fees of activists arrested in the late-2023 protests against Elbit.

The first example attorneys cite in the court filing concerns the protests. “Throughout October and November 2023, multiple direct action events occurred at Elbit facilities, causing significant damage,” reads the original in English.

But then, in Spanish, those “direct action events” become actos de violencia directo – or “acts of direct violence”.

In another example, the original refers to three activists arrested at one of the protests, saying “the three caused significant damage to the building” where Elbit Systems is located.

The three activists become tres incendios, or three fires, in the Spanish translation.

There is no mention of “fires” in the original text, because the protesters didn’t set anything on fire, Martínez told the Guardian.

In a third example, activists spoke about “risk[ing] arrest for trespassing”. In Spanish, “trespassing” becomes allanamiento de morada, which can also mean, variously, “burglary” or “breaking and entering” – a more serious offense.

Similarly, “set off smoke canisters” – the kind seen at football matches around the world – becomes detonaron botes de humo, the Spanish verb being “detonate”, as one would with explosives.

“In combination with the …bad-faith introduction of the three fires, this reinforces the idea of an attack with explosives that is not in the English original,” the attorneys write.

Nicole Navas Oxman, a US Department of Justice spokesperson, declined to comment on the translations.

Chambers has applied for political asylum in Spain. He cannot be extradited until the asylum case runs its course, and also cannot be extradited if he is granted asylum. His legal team has also notified the government office evaluating his asylum petition of the incident.

A self-described communist and anti-imperialist, Chambers is also heir of the Cox family, owners of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises. As part of a settlement in which his family severed ties with him at the time, he sold stock back to his family worth about $250m in mid-2023. Since then, he has been funding an estimated 100 progressive and humanitarian projects in 20 countries, according to his partner, activist and actor Stella Schnabel.

Chambers’s views and donations have been extensively profiled in US media, including his public comments on Israel and Gaza. A week after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, he posted on X about Israel’s response: “Stop calling it ‘collective punishment’/There’s nothing to be ‘punished’ for/No faction of the Palestinian resistance, Hamas or other, has done *anything* wrong/It’s simply genocide/Like it has been.”

After next week’s hearing, the Spanish court has three days to decide whether to extradite Chambers. If the decision is affirmative, the Spanish council of ministers can weigh in and even reverse the court’s decision.

This means Chambers’ extradition may be one of the last decisions made under Pedro Sánchez, the socialist prime minister, before national elections on 29 November.

“There’s been a lot of irregularities already,” Martínez said. “Spain has to say, ‘You can’t ridicule the Spanish justice system any longer.’”