Cops busted a New York City journalist who allegedly joined a group of antisemitic vandals that splattered red paint on several New York City homes two months ago — including one belonging to the head of the Brooklyn Museum.
Samuel Seligson, 32, was picked up Tuesday and charged with two counts of third-degree hate crimes / criminal mischief for the vandalism, which cops said was done by five facemask-clad bandits who spray-painted slogans on the homes of museum board members accusing them of funding genocide.
But cops wouldn’t say exactly what role Seligson — an independent videographer who was also arrested in May at a pro-Palestine protest — had during the attacks.
A law enforcement source told the Associated Press that Seligson wasn’t accused of participating in the attacks, only filming them.
Seligson’s attorney, Leena Widdi, described the arrest and charges as an “appalling” overreach by police against a recognized journalist with a city-issued press credential who has licensed and sold footage to mainstream outlets like ABC News and Reuters.
“Samuel is being charged for alleged behavior that is protected by the First Amendment and consistent with his job as a credentialed member of the press,” Widdi said in a statement. “What is even more concerning, however, is that this member of the press is being charged with a hate crime.”
But police sources told The Post that Seligson helped the vandals load their equipment, drove to the scenes with them, trespassed on private property and wasn’t wearing his press credentials during the incidents.
The alleged vandals struck days after hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the Brooklyn Museum’s lobby, vandalized artwork and claimed the museum was “deeply invested in and complicit” in Israel’s invasion of Gaza because of its leaders, trustees, sponsors and donors.
Museum officials denied the allegations.
At the Brooklyn Heights home of museum director Anne Pasternak — who is Jewish — the group hung a banner that said, “Anne Pasternak Brooklyn Museum White-Supremacist Zionist.”
The group also sprayed an upside-down, red triangle on her door — a symbol used by Hamas to identify Israeli military targets — during its early-morning raid on June 12.
The vandals also allegedly targeted three other homes that belong to members of the Brooklyn Museum’s board — actions that were widely condemned.
Shortly afterward, the NYPD released surveillance footage of the five suspects wanted in the destruction of Pasternak’s building.
Late last month, the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force arrested Taylor Pelton, 28, of Queens, and hit her with similar charges for the ordeal at Pasternak’s home.
Pelton — who had no prior arrests — was also accused of defacing another building on Douglass Street in Cobble Hill with red paint that same morning, and faces another count of hate crime criminal mischief for that act, cops said.
Seligson has also been charged for the Douglass Street vandalism, according to police sources.
