Lawyers for imprisoned wealthy leftist donor James “Fergie” Chambers accused the Trump administration of making “malicious” and “bad faith” changes to legally required translations from English to Spanish in his extradition request to Spain, adding words like “violent,” “detonate” and “arson” that are not in the original text. Chambers’ legal team also identified multiple cases in which the U.S. translation from English to Spanish created more serious legal allegations against Chambers than 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 case in which the United States seeks to extradite a citizen for alleged support of Hamas, an allegation apparently tied to a charge of money laundering and donations Chambers has made to support Palestinians, including the Sameer Project, in Gaza. The lawyers have filed a last-minute request with Spain’s National Court requesting a new translation and for the court to recognize the United States’ “bad faith” actions, after also learning this week that Chambers’ extradition hearing is scheduled for November 13. The Guardian has seen the 21-page application, submitted on Tuesday. Includes multiple, detailed examples of what the legal defense team calls a “translation.” [that] has fictitiously added incriminating facts, presumably in bad faith.” The objective, the lawyers say, is “to induce the Spanish authorities to make errors in the assessment of the facts.” [of the case] and in the decision on extradition.” Both Spanish law and the extradition treaty between the United States and Spain require that extradition requests be translated into Spanish by the requesting country. “This is scandalous; in 20 years of practice, I have never seen anything like it,” said Aitor Martínez, one of Chambers’ lawyers, adding that the “embarrassing” translation joined a growing list of irregularities in the Trump administration’s handling of the case, including the seizure of Chambers’ phone by the FBI, in apparent violation of Spanish law and the international extradition treaty, reported by The Guardian last month. The translations in question come from the criminal complaint and related documents supporting the extradition request The first example the lawyers cite in the court filing concerns the protests. For example, the original refers to three activists arrested at one of the protests, saying that “the three caused significant damage to the building” where Elbit Systems is located. The three activists become three fires, in the Spanish translation there is no mention of “fires” in the original text, because the protesters did not set fire to anything, Martínez told The Guardian.[ing] arrest for alanamiento de morada.” In Spanish, “intrusion” becomes trespassing, which can also mean, variously, “robbery” or “breaking into property,” a more serious crime. Similarly, “explode smoke canisters” – the kind seen at football games around the world – becomes detonated smoke canisters, the verb in Spanish being “detonate,” as would be done 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 lawyers write. Nicole Navas Oxman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, declined to comment on the translations. Chambers has requested political asylum in Spain. You cannot be extradited until the asylum case runs its course, and you cannot be extradited if you are granted asylum. His legal team has also notified the incident to the government office evaluating his asylum claim. He is also heir to the Cox family, owners of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, as part of a deal in which his family cut ties with him at the time, he sold shares to his family worth about $250 million in mid-2023. Since then, he has been funding about 100 progressive and humanitarian projects in 20 countries, according to his partner, activist and actress Stella Schnabel. Chambers’ views and donations have been widely profiled in the American media, including his own. public comments on Israel and Gaza A week after the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, he posted on 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 give its opinion and even revoke the court’s decision. This means that Chambers’ extradition may be one of the last decisions made under the government of Pedro Sánchez, the socialist prime minister, before the national elections on November 29. “There have already been many irregularities,” Martínez said, “Spain has to say: ‘The Spanish justice system can no longer be ridiculed.’”
