Northern Va. County Ends ICE Program that Removed 9,500 Criminal Aliens

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Northern Va. County Ends ICE Program that Removed 9,500 Criminal Aliens

Celio Alexander Serrano–Trejo was arrested in November 2019 after Prince William County, Virginia police officers learned that Celio, an illegal immigrant, had a criminal warrant in his native El Salvador and was a member of the notoriously violent gang MS-13.

Police honored a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer and handed the dangerous gang member over to ICE agents for deportation hearings pursuant to federal law.

According to new data obtained by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a pro-legal immigration group, Celio was one of 9,537 criminal illegal aliens the Prince William Police Department transferred to ICE since 2007.

But that partnership is now over.

The county’s Jail Board recently voted to let its “287(g) program” expire, which allows local jurisdictions to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement authorities.

Instead of honoring ICE detainers, criminal illegal aliens will now be released back to the streets.

“For the county to let its 287(g) program expire shows a shocking level of irresponsibility to its residents,” said Dale L. Wilcox, executive director and general counsel of IRLI.

“The fact that nearly 10,000 illegal aliens, many of whom were charged with violent crimes, were removed was a good thing,”he added. “There could be untold aliens facing murder, rape and drunk driving charges in that community who otherwise would be processed for deportation,”

Prince William County is located near Washington, D.C., and the local Jail Board has become majority-activist, according to Wilcox.

Prior to dumping the federal-state joint program, the Jail Board held hearings to bolster public support for its premeditated decision.

ICE officials attended the hearing and testified that 2,639 criminal aliens had been removed from the posh community since 2017, including 65 murder suspects and 277 alleged sexual assailants.

Going forward, such criminals will be released from local custody with the intention of helping them avoid deportation.

But ICE appears committed to public safety regardless of local government activism.

“Public safety is best served when law enforcement agencies work together,” an ICE spokesman said in a statement to IRIL.

“The Prince William County Jail Board’s decision to discontinue the 287(g) program will certainly have a direct impact on public safety in Prince William County, but [ICE] Enforcement and Removal Operations remains committed to working with the jail and the sheriff’s office for the safety of Prince William County residents.”

COWARDLY MEDIA: USA Today Says Navarro Column Slamming Fauci ‘Didn’t Meet Standards’

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COWARDLY MEDIA: USA Today Says Navarro Column Slamming Fauci ‘Didn’t Meet Standards’

(Headline USA) USA Today says that a column that the newspaper solicited and published from presidential trade adviser Peter Navarro criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci was misleading and did not meet fact-checking standards.

The newspaper explained the decision in a note by Bill Sternberg, editorial page editor, attached to the column online. Navarro’s column originally moved online late Tuesday and was published in Wednesday’s newspaper.

Navarro wrote that Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, “has been wrong about everything I interacted with him on.”

The newspaper on Wednesday evening also ran a fact-check story by Washington reporter Ledyard King examining five of Navarro’s claims.

It wasn’t clear how Navarro’s column escaped such scrutiny before being published. Sternberg said in an email that he’s letting his editorial note speak for itself. The incident is reminiscent of The New York Times saying last month that an opinion column by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton hadn’t been properly vetted, which led to the resignation of the opinion editor after the newspaper’s outraged leftist journalistic staff nearly revolted.

Navarro did not immediately return a message for comment.

USA Today said it had sought Navarro’s opinion to accompany an editorial that the newspaper ran calling Fauci “a national treasure,” despite the doctor’s many flip-flops on advice about the virus.

That editorial said the fact that Navarro was writing the opposing viewpoint “shows how hard it is to find an actual medical professional willing to undercut Fauci.” However, many medical professionals have expressed disagreement with Fauci, which reflects on the newspaper’s weak efforts to search for one.

Fauci has essentially been shelved by the White House as a prominent spokesperson on the coronavirus pandemic because he’s publicly been more pessimistic than the president. He does webcasts but rarely gives television interviews anymore.

Trump distanced himself from Navarro’s column, saying Wednesday that the column was Navarro’s views and “he shouldn’t be doing that.”

Navarro accurately claimed in the column that Fauci opposed travel restrictions from China that were imposed by Trump that “might well have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives.”

USA Today said there isn’t enough data to conclude the restrictions made a significant difference, and that despite some initial skepticism, Fauci backed the president.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

Pro-Vote-Fraud Activists Dealt a Disappointing Loss by Michigan Appeals Court

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Pro-Vote-Fraud Activists Dealt a Disappointing Loss by Michigan Appeals Court

(Headline USA) The Michigan appeals court denied a request to require the counting of absentee ballots received after the time polls close on Election Day, ruling that the battleground state’s deadline remains intact despite activist efforts to allow voting after Election Day.

The court, in a 2-1 decision released Wednesday, said it is up to lawmakers to change the deadline that has been in place for at least 91 years.

The League of Women Voters of Michigan and three voters sued in May, seeking a declaration that absentee ballots be counted as long as they are mailed on or before Election Day and are received within six days of the election.

The plaintiffs, who will appeal to the state Supreme Court, pointed to voters’ new constitutional rights to cast an absentee ballot without giving a reason 40 days before an election and to do it in person or by mail. They also noted fears of visiting polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We follow the view that courts should typically defer to the Legislature in making policy decisions,” Judge David Sawyer wrote, adding that organizers of the ballot drive did not include a deadline in the initiative.

Judge Michael Riordan agreed with the ruling, while Judge Elizabeth Gleicher dissented.

“This case should be easy,” she said. “Because voters have a right to vote by mail if they mail their ballots to the clerk during the 40 days before an election, they have right to have their votes counted when those votes arrive in the clerk’s office. This interpretation squares with the historical and legal meaning of voting. It corresponds with the voters’ intent.”

The Republican-controlled Legislature appears unlikely to revise the deadline.

Many have noted the serious concerns of voter-fraud and polling-place chaos that such measures would introduce, and the bad-faith approach leftists have taken in their pursuit of them, often targeting swing states like Michigan that President Donald Trump won by a narrow margin in 2016.

Trump won Michigan by slightly more than 10,700 votes in 2016.

A coalition of electoral watchdogs recently sent a letter to Trump calling on him to issue an executive order prior to an early-August deadline that would require states to adhere to normal election procedures.

The groups pointed to primaries in places like nearby Wisconsin, where hundreds of absentee ballots remained uncounted, and others where ballots that were automatically mailed out wound up being carelessly discarded.

A Georgia couple said last week that it had received a double-whammy of election fraud after an activist group registered its cat to automatically receive a ballot—despite the cat having been dead for more than a decade.

The Michigan judges unanimously rejected a request by the leftist activists to “compel” Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to direct local clerks to provide paid postage on return envelopes.

Although plenty of time remains between now and election day for state officials to prepare adequately, the suit claimed inherent variations in mail delivery schedules could result in one person having the ballot counted and another not, even if they send them back on the same day.

It also said the deadline especially burdens undecided and late-deciding voters and said at least 11 states count ballots sent by Election Day.

However, the argument seemed clearly designed to sway the election toward a particular outcome by motivating voters to turn out after the fact only if Trump were to win.

Only 1.75% of ballots were not counted in the recent May local elections because they came in too late.

A similar suit — funded by Priorities USA, a powerful super PAC in Democratic politics — is pending in the state Court of Claims. Arguments were heard last week.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Arsonist Gets Badly Burned While Trying to Torch SCOTUS Police Car

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Arsonist Gets Badly Burned While Trying to Torch SCOTUS Police Car

(Liberty Headlines) Religious figures like Tibetan monks have long used self-immolation by setting themselves on fire to make poignant political statements.

A few radicals, and some presumed drug-abusers, have even brought the gruesome and horrific practice to our nation’s capital in recent years.

But for today’s snowflake generation of Antifa-trained social-justice warriors, the self-sacrificial aspect may be purely accidental.

A young man set a police car on fire outside the Supreme Court Wednesday, suffering serious burns in the process, the Associated Press and other media outlets reported.

It is unclear whether the injury to himself was intention, but either way, the vandal failed to achieve the intended outcome, leaving himself badly injured, writhing on the ground before being taken into police custody.

“He was taken into custody by Supreme Court Police and was transported by ambulance for treatment of his injuries,” said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said.

Arberg said the individual appeared to pour a flammable liquid on a white four-door sedan belonging to the Supreme Court Police, parked on Maryland Avenue next to the court building, and then set the vehicle ablaze. An adjacent vehicle was also damaged.

Witnesses, including a Congressional staffer passing by, described a fast response by authorities but said they were, nonetheless, shaken by the episode.

The staffer told CQ/Roll Call that while was enjoying lunch on the National Mall with friends they heard a series of loud bangs. They looked to see flames shooting out the undercarriage of the vehicle.

“A second later, the whole thing was literally a fireball,” said the staffer.

A witness statement reported by the crime blog Police1 said a witness also described the burn “victim” dropping something through the car’s window immediately beforehand and then running away.

“Other witnesses said they weren’t sure if the man who ran was running because he was involved or out of fear,” reported the blog.

Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department referred all questions to the Supreme Court Police, one of several overlapping law enforcement agencies in the District of Columbia.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

DOJ Charges MS-13 Gang Member w/ Terrorism for First Time Ever

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DOJ Charges MS-13 Gang Member w/ Terrorism for First Time Ever

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it had successfully arrested multiple MS-13 leaders, and that it would be charging at least one gang member with terrorism-related offenses for the first time ever.

The administration launched a task force, known as Project Vulcan, last summer to “disrupt, dismantle, and ultimately destroy MS-13,” a Central-American gang known for extremely violent criminal behavior.

The task force coordinated a multi-district takedown of MS-13, which led to dozens of arrests, including 13 in Nevada and eight in New York.

As a result, the DOJ will be bringing several criminal charges against MS-13 members, including narco-terrorism, racketeering conspiracy and drug trafficking, according to Attorney General William Barr.

“In 2017, the president directed the Department of Justice to go to war against MS-13, and we did just that,” Barr said during a press conference on Wednesday.

“In coordination with our partners at the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department’s law enforcement components have successfully investigated, charged, and arrested command and control elements of MS-13 responsible for murder.”

A key leader nabbed in the operation was Melgar Diaz, who was charged this week with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and commit acts of terrorism.

Diaz was responsible for illegal activities in 13 states, according to the DOJ, and frequently “green-lighted” assassinations.

This is the first time the DOJ has used terrorism-related charges against a member of MS-13, Barr said.

Project Vulcan also arrested MS-13 leader Alexi Saenz, who reportedly committed more than seven murders between 2016 and 2017 alone.

The DOJ is seeking the death penalty for Saenz, according to a press release.

“The person we are seeking a death penalty against was involved in those murders as well as two African Americans who they saw on the street and thought were from a rival gang and just butchered,” Barr said.

MS-13 is a “death cult” that focuses on “the honor of being the most savage, blood-thirsty person you can be,” Barr explained. The gang has also become increasingly involved in human and narcotics trafficking, though its primary drive isn’t commercial, he added.

President Trump praised the “historic operation” that led to this week’s indictments, and vowed to continue the “all out campaign to destroy MS-13.”

“This is probably the meanest, worst gang anywhere in the world, the MS-13 group. And a big dent was put in them, took place over the last few days and really over the last year,” Trump said.

Instagram Threatens to Ban Don Jr.; Twitter Exposed (Again) for Blacklisting

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Instagram Threatens to Ban Don Jr.; Twitter Exposed (Again) for Blacklisting

Social media juggernaut Instagram threatened to delete Donald Trump Jr.’s account on Wednesday for spreading allegedly false information about the Wuhan coronavirus and the drug hydroxychloroquine.

The warning was part of a zero-tolerance social media stance shared by Silicon Valley’s biggest tech giants.

The popular photo-sharing application is a subsidiary of the embattled Facebook, which has taken sharp criticism and faced pressure from both the Right and Left over its policies for selectively filtering and censoring content.

But where did President Donald Trump’s namesake get his information? CNN.

Trump Jr. posted several screenshots of CNN articles that contradicted each other in every way except for the clear disdain for the president that informs nearly all of its coverage.

The president and his allies have, in turn, repeatedly dismissed the organization as “fake news.”

An April 11 headline read, “President Trump is wrong in so many ways about hydroxychloroquine studies. Here are the facts.” A July 2 headline read, “Study finds hydroxychloroquine helped coronavirus patients survive better.”

Comparing the articles was meant to show how CNN’s political bias subverts its news reporting.

But Instagram deleted at least four such posts for “harmful false information” and then threatened to delete Trump’s Jr.’s account—with 3.1 million followers—if he violates the social media company’s “community guidelines” again.

“These are actual headlines from CNN,” Trump Jr. wrote after the posts were taken down, adding, “but because it doesn’t fit the narrative the social media masters are going to make sure that no one actually hears the truth.”

In response to the Wuhan virus pandemic, Facebook has introduced measures to censor what it considers “misinformation,” including warning labels on certain posts, arbitrary deletions and directing users to content from “authoritative” mainstream news outlets.

Facebook—and by extension Instagram—has been issuing automatic warning notices to users who “like” unapproved coronavirus posts, and it even disseminates World Health Organization materials, despite the WHO’s role in covering for China’s global pandemic.

But as Trump Jr. pointed out, there’s no apparent accountability for CNN or other approved news organizations when they knowingly spread false information for political purposes.

“The censorship is real and it continues,” Trump Jr. wrote on Instagram.

“There is nothing they won’t do to manipulate the truth and facts to suit their ends,” he wrote.

“This is how they’re going to try to sway the 2020 election,” he continued. “Don’t let then get away with it”

Trump Jr. also said his Twitter engagement has dropped dramatically in past few weeks despite having 5.3 million followers.

The observation came as an unrelated exposé confirmed how Twitter moderators are blacklisting conservative users.

Leaked screenshots published on Motherboard, a component of Vice Media, show an internal administration tool that Twitter staffers use to blacklist selected accounts from searches and trends.

The screenshots show admin-account features that include tags called “Trends Blacklist” and “Search Blacklist.”

The revelation shows more evidence of targeted censorship after the company confirmed its longstanding practice of “shadow banning” earlier this year.

It also raised questions as to whether Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey may have perjured himself when testifying before Congress that the platform did not engage in questionable practices such as shadow-banning users.

Many conservatives and libertarians, including prominent supporters of President Trump, have long assumed they were shadow-banning targets, meaning their accounts were intentionally hidden from broader view.

But—perhaps emboldened in an election year—Twitter officially made the practice part of its terms of service in January.

Sen. Tom Cotton Rips the NYTimes over ‘Woke’ Bullying of Liberal Columnist

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Sen. Tom Cotton Rips the NYTimes over ‘Woke’ Bullying of Liberal Columnist

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote a scathing editorial on Thursday about the bullying and anti-Semitic harassment that led to the resignation of New York Times opinion columnist Bari Weiss.

Cotton experienced a similar phenomenon last month after he wrote an op-ed that led to a staff revolt and forced the resignation of former Times opinion editor James Bennet.

“The woke mob at The New York Times has claimed another scalp,” Cotton wrote.

“This is not a one-off event but a trend, as far-left, anti-American forces have consolidated control over some of our nation’s most influential institutions,” he continued.

Weiss, who is a traditional liberal, was “viciously harassed” by her colleagues for refusing to embrace extremist political positions within the paper’s editorial division.

She issued a widely circulated resignation letter to Times publisher A. G. Sulzberger this week that recounted the toxic environment at the flagship newspaper.

“My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views,” she wrote. “They have called me a Nazi and a racist.”

Weiss said she had “learned to brush off” remarks about how she was  “writing about the Jews again” from bigoted Times staffers.

“Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action,” she noted.

None had faced consequences for the attacks, she added.

Cotton tore into Times knowing that conservatives have long been socially acceptable targets of the so-called paper of record. But now, moderate Democrats aren’t safe.

“Just as radicals in many cities have seized control of the streets and are demolishing statues to American heroes like George Washington, a band of more polished radicals have seized control of venerable institutions and are using their newfound power to bully an unwilling country,” Cotton wrote.

“Suffice it to say the New York Times isn’t a newspaper anymore, in the traditional sense of the word,” he concluded.

“It’s a propaganda bullhorn—a super PAC for the Democratic Party, the 1619 Project, and other revolutionary causes,” he said. “Perhaps it should rebrand as The New Woke Times.”

Worker’s Rights Group Tells Biden to Disavow Corrupt UAW’s Endorsement

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Worker’s Rights Group Tells Biden to Disavow Corrupt UAW’s Endorsement

If presidential candidate Joe Biden wants to prove he’s pro-worker, he should repudiate all support—both financial and verbal—that he’s received from the corrupt United Auto Workers union, according to the National Right to Work Foundation. 

The foundation sent a letter to the Biden campaign this week reminding Biden of the recent federal probe that resulted in several federal charges against at least 10 senior UAW officials.

The leaders pleaded guilty to crimes including embezzlement, racketeering, and labor law violations.

Former UAW President Gary Jones, for example, admitted to “scheming with at least six union officials” to spend more than $1 million in union treasury money, most of which came from workers’ dues.

The UAW endorsed Biden’s campaign in April, citing its positive experience with the Obama administration during the 2009 auto bailout and its negative experience with the “anti-worker federal appointees” by the Trump administration.

But the foundation pointed out that the real reason the UAW supports Biden is because the union hopes the Trump administration’s ongoing investigation into its crimes will end with Trump.

“Disturbingly, it seems as though UAW officials are deliberately stalling [the federal investigation] in a cynical ploy to ‘run out the clock’ on the Trump Justice Department, in the hopes that your administration will let them off the hook,” the foundation said in its letter.

That’s why union leaders have donated millions of dollars to Biden’s campaign as well, the foundation explained.

“Ordinary Americans have ample reason to suspect that there is a connection between UAW President Rory Gamble’s enthusiastic endorsement of your presidential bid on April 21 and his nonchalance in the face of U.S. Attorney Schneider’s warnings about a federal takeover of the UAW,” the letter states.

Biden should stand up to the UAW and prove that he is “above the demands of union bosses,” the letter continued.

If he does not, he would send “a clear message to American workers that union boss malfeasance will continue to go unpunished so long as Big Labor has greased the right palms.”

Election Watchdogs Offer Dire Warning about Dems’ Mail-In Ballot Scams

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Election Watchdogs Offer Dire Warning about Dems’ Mail-In Ballot Scams

In a sobering letter to President Donald Trump, a leading election watchdog warned that “a fair and honest election is not possible under current conditions.”

According to the Election Integrity Alliance, November elections are at heightened risk due to “extraordinary and careless changes” in election laws and regulations that purport to protect voters from the Wuhan coronavirus.

“The founders of Election Integrity Alliance implore your immediate response to an existential threat to this nation—the aggressive dismantling of our electoral process,” the letter said.

“Under cover of COVID, enough states’ election laws are currently being manipulated so that even an Electoral College majority can be stolen in a variety of ways,” it added.

In several states—including Virginia, for example—ACLU-backed lawsuits were attempting to use the state’s emergency powers to overturn longstanding rules that requires witness signatures on absentee ballots, in order to attest that those submitting them were who they claimed to be.

The Election Integrity Alliance’s letter featured dozens of signatories—many of whom were leaders of independent organizations, such as the Voter Integrity Project of North Carolina, the Virginia Voters Alliance, and the Election Integrity Projects of California, Arizona, Arkansas and Nevada.

The EIA and allied groups asked President Trump to issue an executive order requiring all states to follow federal election law and maintain clean voter rolls before the Aug. 5 deadline that bars any changes to 2020 general-election processes.

“Numerous organizations have irrefutable evidence that states are actively working to deny their own citizens’ civil right to self-govern,” the letter stated.

“We also have extensive documentation that non-enforcement of protective laws in concert with the implementation of policies and procedures that supersede federal and state laws has resulted in election chaos, including single individuals casting votes in multiple states,” it continued.

The Election Integrity Alliance warned of a potential “titanic disaster,” and leaders of member-organizations sought an immediate White House summit to share “vital information” that undermines the mainstream news narrative that voter fraud is a myth.

The groups were so intent on securing the election, and particularly combating COVID vote-by-mail fraud, that they started a White House petition for other concerned citizens to sign and attempt to force a meeting with President Trump.

“We do not want to lose our Republic,” the groups stated. “We cannot trust our state leaders to solve these problems, because in most cases they are the problem.”

The Left’s effort to exploit the coronavirus has been well-coordinated since the very day that Trump declared a national emergency in response to the pandemic threat.

Among those leading the push are Democrats’ top “election-stealing lawyer,” Marc Elias, who gained dubious distinction as the person who commissioned the Steele Dossier on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Billionaire activists Tom Steyer and George Soros have also been backing universal mail-in balloting—and other dubious measures—in states across the country, but especially in strategically targeted battleground states.

Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder is rerouting his “sue till blue” efforts through the National Democratic Redistricting Committee to actively target absentee-ballot laws in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin, among several other states.

And most recently, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, a champion of “voting rights” measures like eliminating photo ID laws, has launched a new PAC intended to push back on the anti-fraud narrative by smearing those who oppose the radical changes.

In response, President Trump tweeted: “Absentee Ballots are a great way to vote for the many senior citizens, military, and others who can’t get to the polls on Election Day. These ballots are very different from 100% Mail-In Voting, which is “RIPE for FRAUD,” and shouldn’t be allowed!”

Despite seemingly agreeing with the Election Integrity Alliance, Trump has not yet indicated whether he will meet with the group or its partners.

“Our input will supply the evidence the mainstream mantra claims does not exist,” their letter concludes. “We believe this is truly the last chance to do so. There is no tomorrow unless you act today.”

Liberty Headlines’ Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Sen. Hawley Urges DOJ Probe into Soros Prosecutor’s Targeting of McCloskeys

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Sen. Hawley Urges DOJ Probe into Soros Prosecutor’s Targeting of McCloskeys

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is calling for a federal civil rights investigation into the politically motivated targeting of a St. Louis married couple who exercised their Second Amendment rights in the face of a Black Lives Matter mob.

Hawley sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Thursday stating that St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner, a George Soros-backed elected prosecutor, is engaging in “an unacceptable abuse of power.”

Mark and Patricia McCloskey brandished firearms on the front steps of their home on June 28, after a mob of protesters trespassed on their property and threatened them.

Although police were slow to arrive, the confrontation was resolved without anyone being hurt.

But that hasn’t stopped Gardner from aiming the full force of her office at the couple.

Gardner has seized their legally owned guns, ordered a criminal investigation, applied for warrants and is reportedly planning a criminal indictment.

According to Hawley, none of those actions are justified.

“There is no question under Missouri law that the McCloskeys had the right to own and use their firearms to protect themselves from threatened violence, and that any criminal prosecution for these actions is legally unsound.”

In a Fox News interview, Albert Watkins, the McCloskeys’ attorney, said that Missouri’s “Castle Doctrine” affords a person “the absolute unmitigated right to protect his or her castle [home] or family while on their property.”

Watkins added that the protesters were trespassing and “damaging and destroying private property and acting in a threatening and hostile fashion.”

In his letter, Hawley pointed to the fact that Gardner declined to prosecute dozens of violent rioters and looters after they were arrested in St. Louis following the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Eric Schmidt, Missouri’s state attorney general, was appalled at her decision and posted video evidence of arson and mayhem on social media.

Hawley concluded that, “The only possible motivation for the investigation, then, is a politically motivated attempt to punish this family for exercising their Second Amendment rights.”

Gardner, one of many Soros-backed prosecutors across the nation, was elected in 2016 on a platform of criminal justice reform.

In a statement, she described the encounter between the McCloskeys and the protesters as “a violent assault” against people exercising their First Amendment rights.

“I am alarmed at the events that occurred over the weekend, where peaceful protesters were met by guns and a violent assault,” Gardner said. “We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation or threat of deadly force will not be tolerated.”

But Hawley isn’t buying it.

“St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is now threatening to prosecute not the trespassers, but the McCloskeys, and she is using the powers of her office to target them,” he wrote.

“No family should face the threat of harassment or malicious prosecution for exercising that [Second Amendment] right,” he continued. “The Department of Justice must ensure that all Americans’ rights are protected from this kind of abuse of power.”

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