Republican Senator Josh Hawley’s wife filed a criminal complaint against one of the organizers of a protest last month outside his home in Virginia.
The individual was accused of misdemeanor for illegal demonstration, but not for making threats or vandalism, as the Missouri senator initially claimed. A local magistrate found enough “likely cause” to issue a subpoena in the case, according to a police spokesman.
Hawley’s office said the complaint was filed in a court in Fairfax County, Virginia, with the defendant identified as activist Patrick Young of Washington, DC. But on Friday morning, Young told ABC News that he had heard nothing about a criminal complaint, that it won’t be made public until he receives it.
“If a subpoena has been issued, it is outrageous that a wealthy and powerful person – a United States senator – can go to his magistrate to obtain a subpoena to harass a normal person,” said Young in a statement, acknowledging that he helped organize last month’s protest.
Under Virginia law, any citizen can file a criminal complaint and request a subpoena, although a magistrate must find enough “probable cause” to issue one.
The video posted online of the January 4 incident showed protesters speaking out loud in front of Hawley’s home for nearly 30 minutes, contesting his claims that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate and that Joe Biden should not be certified two days then as the next President of the USA.
At the time, Hawley and their two children were in Missouri, while his wife, Erin, and their newborn daughter, were at the Vienna, Virginia, residence.
A few hours after the protest, Hawley posted on Twitter that “Antifa scumbags” had “shouted threats, vandalized and tried to open our door”, condemning everything as “left-wing violence”. But protesters and others contested his allegations, with police saying they had found no evidence of violence in the protest.
In a statement supporting her complaint, Erin Hawley extensively reported what can be seen in the 50-minute video posted online, following the group of protesters as they gathered at a nearby shopping mall and then walked to her family’s neighborhood, where ” they shouted menacingly, “she said.
The senator’s wife said she identified Young via news about the protest, which was organized by the “anti-fascist” group ShutdownDC. As the organizer of ShutdownDC, Young spoke to the media after the protest and defended it as “non-threatening”.
He described the entire demonstration for ABC News as a “candlelight vigil”.
As portrayed in the online video, about 20 protesters were just meters from the Hawleys’ front door, shouting furiously and using megaphones as they repeatedly chanted songs like “What a shame” and “Stand up, strike back”.
Phrases like “Lost Trump” were written in chalk on the sidewalk and a handful of posters were placed in front of their homes.
At one point, the senator’s wife opened the front door and, while holding the baby, calmly asked the crowd to “get out, please.”
“We have neighbors and a baby, thank you”, she can be heard on the video.
A protester shouted back, “We need a future for your baby.”
In the statement supporting his complaint, Hawley’s wife said, “I was scared and I closed and locked the door.”
A few minutes later, a protester announced through a megaphone that “some of us are going up [to] knock on his door, maybe we can leave some signs, and we’ll leave a copy of [the] Constitution in the hope that Senator Hawley will actually read it … and abandon his dangerous attack on our democracy. “
As seen in the video posted online, three protesters approached the front door.
“[T]The doorbell rang and, from below, I could hear loud noises at the door: knocking, knocking, shouting or some combination, “wrote the senator’s wife in his statement.” I went upstairs to see what was going on. … The protesters were shouting with megaphones and shouting ‘Get out, get out!’ I was afraid. “
After about 12 minutes, an officer from the Vienna Police Department arrived at the scene and told the group that, under state law, it was “actually illegal” to picket in front of a house, according to the video. Municipal laws also prohibit the use of megaphones, a police department spokesman told ABC News.
They continued to protest for another 10 minutes, after they said a prayer and more police arrived.
Hawley’s office provided ABC News with a statement by Erin Hawley, who said he was registered with the complaint.
In her statement, she said that after the protest, she is now “fearful” for her family and that they have hired private security, especially after the protesters “threatened to return early in the morning or during the night”.
“[B]based on a citizen, the magistrate issued a subpoena to a defendant for violation of the Virginia Code 18.2-419 (pickets or disturbance of domestic tranquility), a Class 3 misdemeanor, “the Vienna police spokesman told ABC. News.
Young called these claims “slanderous”.
On January 4, the day of the protest, the ShutdownDC group posted an online message warning that Hawley’s “baseless” claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that his efforts to prevent Congress from certifying the results less than two days later “add kindling to an already dangerous situation.”
The group said “many” of supporters of then President Donald Trump were threatening to “commit violence against” members of Congress and the police during a rally in Washington on January 6, when the election was due to be certified.
After Hawley first said the protesters had threatened his family, “vandalized” his home and “tried to open our door,” the Washington Post and other media questioned the veracity of these allegations.
The Associated Press noted that “the video posted by activists and a description of the local police do not match your account”. And The Washington Post noted that protesters and local police described the protest as peaceful, reporting that “the Vienna police said they saw no one knocking on the doors of the Hawleys or their neighbors, heard no threats and saw no vandalism. . than chalk on the sidewalk. “
In response, Hawley on Twitter accused The Washington Post of “printing lies from the Antifa group, which now describes itself as sweet angels”.
“You yelled through megaphones, yelled at my wife when she asked you to leave, vandalized properties, knocked on our door and terrified the neighbors,” tweeted Hawley. “You are a scum. And we will not be intimidated.”
Hawley reiterated his report on Fox News, saying, “The aim was to terrify and intimidate.”
According to a spokeswoman for Hawley, the public controversy over the senator’s initial allegations has generated new security concerns.
“Because of the attacks on the media and the left in recent weeks, Josh’s family has been the target of numerous threats in their lives that are being monitored by the authorities,” said Hawley’s communications director, Kelli Ford, in a statement to the ABC news.
On the morning of January 6, less than 48 hours after the protest at his home, Hawley arrived at the Capitol prepared to formally oppose Joe Biden being certified as the next president.
After a violent pro-Trump mob invaded the Capitol, leaving five dead and delaying certification for several hours, Hawley was one of the few senators to vote against certifying the results of the Electoral College.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a rare public bulletin, warning: “The information suggests that some ideologically motivated violent extremists and objections to … presidential transition, as well as other perceived complaints fueled by false narratives, may continue to to mobilize to incite or commit violence. “
The “high threat environment”, according to DHS, will persist for weeks.