Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 30, 2025
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova, on assignment for The Associated Press, captured this image moments after federal officers shoved her and a second journalist to the ground outside New York City’s immigration court on Sept. 30, 2025.
ICE officer asserts September 2025 assault caused by journalists' 'interference'
A federal officer said in a May 12, 2026, sworn affidavit that a group of journalists — which included photojournalist Olga Fedorova — interfered with an arrest in a September incident at a federal immigration court in New York, New York.
Footage captured by a journalist at the scene on Sept. 30, 2025, showed federal officers grabbing and shoving amNewYork’s Dean Moses out of an elevator and pushing Fedorova to the floor and onto Anadolu Agency videographer L. Vural Elibol, who hit his head and was hospitalized.
Joseph Harrington, a supervisory detention and deportation officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was responding to an April 2026 amended complaint in a lawsuit alleging that ICE had obstructed observation efforts at the federal courthouse starting in mid-2025. He asserted that a reporter — likely referring to Moses, though he is not named — followed officers into the elevator as they escorted a detainee for further screening and processing, alleging that the reporter interfered with the arrest and resisted the officers.
“As the reporter was being escorted out of the elevator, an unknown journalist tripped on another individual and fell,” Harrington wrote, adding, “This incident was the result of the journalists’ interference with ICE officers performing their duties.”
The affidavit does not name Fedorova, who was also shoved to the ground by an officer amid the chaos.
The officer’s account of the incident — particularly his references to the journalist tripping — was disputed by at least one eyewitness that was present at the scene that day. Peter Melck Kuttel, detention coordinator for Father Fabian Arias’ Saint Peter’s Church, told amNewYork: “It’s not like he tripped. You don’t hear that crack of a head for someone who trips.” A cracking noise can be heard when Elibol falls to the ground in the video footage.
Former City Comptroller and congressional candidate Brad Lander, who was arrested in June 2025 by ICE at the courthouse, characterized Harrington’s statements as perjury.
“To lie so blatantly, to the court to put your name on a legal document and lie when there’s video and witnesses who all saw the truth,” Lander told amNewYork, adding, “it’s perjury, and I really believe it should be prosecuted.”
Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was shoved to the ground by federal officers while on assignment for The Associated Press at the immigration court in New York, New York, on Sept. 30, 2025.
Multiple journalists have reported access issues, intimidation and threats when covering the court at Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been arresting asylum-seekers following their hearings there since May, part of President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.
Previously, on Sept. 18, independent journalist Michael Nigro was assaulted by a man he identified as a plainclothes ICE officer while reporting on a lawmaker-led protest at the court.
Footage of the Sept. 30 incident, captured by a fellow journalist, shows masked federal officers grabbing, pushing and pulling amNewYork’s Dean Moses out of a public elevator while shouting at him, “Get out of the fucking elevator!”
Another officer standing outside the elevator doors can be seen shoving Fedorova back, causing her to go crashing to the hallway floor atop Anadolu Agency videographer L. Vural Elibol.
Fedorova told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was taking photos of the officers shoving Moses while she backed up to get out of their way.
“Then one of them threw me on the ground,” she said. “I got up immediately to keep shooting and only then realized that someone was on the ground.”
She said that she was not injured and that her cameras appeared to be undamaged.
Another journalist at the scene confirmed to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that Elibol struck his head quite severely and was taken to a hospital for further monitoring and testing. He was later discharged with pain medication.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment.
City Comptroller Brad Lander quickly condemned the assault, writing on the social platform X, “Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher.
“Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.”
The National Press Photographers Association condemned the assaults as “a blatant attack on press freedom.”
“ICE must be held accountable for violating its own policy and for trampling on the First Amendment rights of these photographers,” said NPPA General Counsel Mickey Osterreicher. “Anything less sends a chilling message to journalists everywhere.”
Editor’s Note: This incident has been updated to include comment from Olga Fedorova and the National Press Photographers Association, and information on L. Vural Elibol.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
