"So you have all by now seen that I was detained by Brussels police on the orders of the US Ambassador to Belgium, Bill White. So let me break down how we got here, the full story, where now I am supposedly banned from all US government events according to Ambassador Bill White. It all starts with John Hassan Yildiz. John wrote an email to the Zac Brown Band asking them not to perform at Donald Trump's Freedom 250 event in Brussels. We don't know exactly what happened after that email was sent, but shortly after John received an email back, not from the Zac Brown Band, but from the Ambassador to Belgium, Bill White. Here's where it starts to get a little bit weirder. White cc'd the head of Belgium's federal police, the head of Brussels midi zone police and the head of security for the US embassy, along with other police addresses. And in the email, White implied he already found John's private information saying, quote, Please do let us know because we know it already. John told me that this was deeply scary. He understood this as a threat, especially as he's watching activists across the United States having their basic fundamental rights violated. And when I spoke with data protection experts, they said there was no legal basis for the ambassador to obtain any of the private information of John. What they said it does do is work as intimidation to make sure people like John self-censor. And now it gets a little bit weirder. I then went to Freedom 250, invited as press to ask Bill White about this email. And I did. Bill, why did you try to intimidate a Belgian activist here? No. All right. About 20 minutes after this, as the Pledge of Allegiance played and US World War Two fighter planes flew above, eight plane close police officers surrounded me and ordered me to leave with them. Very quickly, me and my editor and chief Julius were detained and removed from the event. Now, here's the funny part. We begin to see at this part in the story to Ambassador Bill White's one the email extremely tough, the other in person. We emailed White twice after this interaction, first just for clarification and the second time asking him to specify on what he did with John's private information. This is what he sent back. I instructed security to remove you from our event. You are now banned from any State Department and USG events. He claimed I ran up and shoved what looked like a weapon in his face. I didn't. He also claimed that I wasn't cleared or invited. I was. And he said that our editor in chief has, quote, Trump derangement syndrome level five. I would try to explain what level five means, but we have no idea. And this isn't a one off either. Prime Minister Bart De Wever has publicly rebuked White before for constantly stirring up domestic politics. And that is exactly what White does. He's called Belgium anti-Semitic and he banned the leader of Belgium's Socialist Party from being able to travel to the United States. John gave a quote that stuck with me from Brendan Lee Mulligan, which is personality predates ideology, which John sees as meaning before you were a fascist, you were a bully. White fits the description. Every chance he gets, he flexes his power, literally, and he has done so with no consequence, no condemnation from the European Parliament, the European Commission and no national Belgian leaders. So for now, Brussels is home to a rogue American ambassador. Our full reporting is at the Lincoln bio."