Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to say whether Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia should have pardoned a father who was arrested during a school board meeting in 2021.
Youngkin pardoned Scott Smith, who was arrested during a June 22, 2021, school board meeting where he intended to comment on the mishandling of his daughter’s sexual assault, in early September. Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas asked Garland during a Wednesday House Judiciary Committee hearing on “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice” if Youngkin was correct to grant the pardon.
“I don’t know the facts of the case, so I’m not in a position…” Garland said, before being cut off.
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The National School Boards Association cited Smith’s arrest in a letter to Garland, after which he issued an October 4, 2021, memo calling on the FBI to “use its authority” against those who threaten public school officials.
The 2021 assault occurred inside a girl’s bathroom at Stone Bridge High School by a male student who was wearing a skirt.
“We righted a wrong. He should’ve never been prosecuted here,” Youngkin said on “Fox News Sunday” when announcing the pardon. “This was a dad standing up for his daughter and just to remind everyone, his daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school and no one was doing anything about it.”
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