Lawyers for imprisoned wealthy left-wing donor James “Fergie” Chambers have accused the Trump administration of making “malicious” and “bad faith” changes to legally required English-to-Spanish translations in his extradition request to Spain, adding words like “violent,” “detonate” and “fires” that were not in the original text.
Chambers’ legal team also identified several instances where the U.S. translation from English to Spanish resulted in more serious legal charges 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 arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.
Chambers’ case is the first known case where the United States is seeking to extradite a citizen for his alleged support of Hamas, a charge apparently linked to a money laundering charge and donations Chambers made to support the Palestinians, including the Sameer Project, in Gaza.
The lawyers filed a last-minute request to Spain’s National Court requesting a new translation and demanding that the court recognize the U.S.’s “bad faith” actions, after also learning this week that Chambers’ extradition hearing was scheduled for November 13.
The Guardian saw the 21-page application filed on Tuesday. It includes multiple detailed examples of what the defense legal team calls a “translation (that) fictitiously added incriminating acts, in alleged bad faith.”
The objective, the lawyers say, is “to cause the Spanish authorities to make errors in the assessment of the facts (of the case) and in the extradition decision”.
Spanish law and the extradition treaty between the United States and Spain require that extradition requests be translated into Spanish by the requesting country.
“It’s outrageous – in 20 years of practice I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Aitor Martínez, one of Chambers’ lawyers, adding that the “shameful” translation added to 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 underlying the U.S. extradition request.
It was recently revealed that there was no indictment behind the complaint, meaning the federal government has not asked a grand jury to evaluate the evidence against Chambers and is instead seeking his extradition based on a single FBI agent’s affidavit, the basis of the sealed complaint.
Two of the three charges in the complaint – rioting and conspiracy to riot – relate to allegations that he helped fund the legal fees of activists arrested during the late 2023 protests against Elbit.
The first example cited by lawyers in the court filing concerns protests. “Throughout October and November 2023, several direct action events occurred at Elbit facilities, causing significant damage,” reads the original English language.
But then, in Spanish, these “direct action events” become direct acts of violence – or “acts of direct violence”.
In another example, the original refers to three activists arrested during one of the protests, claiming that “the three caused significant damage to the building” where Elbit Systems is located.
The three activists become very incendiaryor three fires, in the Spanish translation.
There is no mention of “fires” in the original text, because the protesters did not set anything on fire, Martínez told the Guardian.
In a third example, activists spoke of “risking arrest for trespassing.” In Spanish, “intrusion” becomes allanamiento de moradawhich can also mean, variously, “burglary” or “break and enter,” a more serious offense.
Similarly, “setting off smoke canisters” – the ones seen at football matches around the world – becomes detonate humor bootsthe Spanish verb being “to detonate”, as one would do with explosives.
“In combination with the bad faith introduction of the three fires, this reinforces the idea of an attack with explosives which 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 requested political asylum in Spain. He cannot be extradited until the asylum case is completed, nor can he be extradited if he is granted asylum. His legal team also informed the government office evaluating his asylum application about the incident.
A self-described communist and anti-imperialist, Chambers is also the heir to the Cox family, owners of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises. As part of a settlement by which his family severed ties with him at the time, he sold shares worth about $250 million back to his family in mid-2023. Since then, he has financed around a hundred progressive and humanitarian projects in 20 countries, according to his partner, activist and actress Stella Schnabel.
Chambers’ views and donations have been widely discussed in the American media, including his public comments on Israel and Gaza. One week after Hamas’s 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 intervene and even annul the court decision.
That means Chambers’ extradition could be one of the last decisions made under Pedro Sánchez, the socialist prime minister, before national elections on November 29.
“There have already been a lot of irregularities,” Martínez said. “Spain must say: ‘You can no longer ridicule the Spanish justice system.’ »
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