The backstory is long and complex: on October 8, 2013, while living as a college student in Seattle, I became the target of a sophisticated cyberstalking campaign perpetrated by George Mason University economics professor Tyler Cowen, who was recently identified through FOIA documents as a federal employee and who has ties to CIA-backed surveillance company Palantir Technologies. On March 26, 2014, after spending several months reporting Cowen’s activities to law enforcement across the country, I attempted to place Mr. Cowen under citizen’s arrest according to the common law of Virginia. As a result of this incident, a State court decided to have me committed to a mental hospital where I was forced to accept several years of treatment for an illness I do not have.
In 2022, I discovered that the Virginia laws that sent me to the hospital and kept me detained indefinitely without evidence have been unconstitutional for decades, in violation of the equal protection and due process holdings in Foucha v. Louisiana, 504 U.S. 71, 112 S. Ct. 1780, 118 L. Ed. 2d 437 (1992). When I began filing civil rights petitions challenging these laws, Virginia retaliated in a way that has permanently impaired my livelihood, and for more than three years state and federal officials have conspired to prevent me from accessing the courts across multiple districts and in two different appellate circuits. Being unable to work professionally, unable to access the courts, unable to retrieve my passport, and receiving threats from numerous government officials both on and off the record, I decided to seek refuge in Quebec, Canada.
On April 11, 2025, I filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking again for the return of my passport, pleading that I am “not charged with a crime as a matter of fact, and could not be charged with a crime as a matter of law.” Pendleton v. United States, et al, No. 1:25-cv-01218 (D.C. 2025). An amended complaint filed in August makes claims against ten federal judges who have violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1985 -- covering up not just the cruel and unusual punishment of American citizens but also the pervasive surveillance activities of the U.S. Government. Neither the court nor the DOJ has responded.
I’m now seeking asylum in Quebec, Canada, citing “government sanctioned defamation ..., persistent threats of trumped-up charges from state and federal officials, and a risk of cruel and unusual punishment upon return.” Pendleton v. Miyares, et al, No. 23-7500 (U.S. Oct. 24, 2024).
The latest filings in D.C. from October 15, 2025, asking the court to grant a preliminary injunction, and establishing my complete innocence, are available on my Proton drive: https://drive.proton.me/urls/STET6DYBA0#sGBPbu2hYQjm
The amended complaint filed in August is available here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/DS2TSVWCVR#jGpTboGJKn2e
Full story here: https://jpendleton.substack.com/p/asylum-from-big-brother
Please share on social media and consider contributing to my legal defense fund: https://www.givesendgo.com/defeat-big-brother