Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s wife, Erin, reportedly filed a criminal complaint with Virginia authorities after demonstrators swarmed their shared home in early January.
A local magistrate in Fairfax County found sufficient “probable cause” to move forward with charging the leader of the protest, Patrick Young, with misdemeanor illegal demonstrating, according to ABC News. At least 20 demonstrators swarmed the couple’s home on Jan. 4 to oppose Josh Hawley’s effort to contest the results of the 2020 election while only Erin and their newborn daughter were inside the residence.
The incident prompted the Republican to write on Twitter, “Tonight while I was in Missouri, Antifa scumbags came to our place in DC and threatened my wife and newborn daughter, who can’t travel. They screamed threats, vandalized, and tried to pound open our door. Let me be clear: My family & I will not be intimidated by leftwing violence.”
The judge who advanced Erin Hawley’s complaint did not charge Young or any of the other suspected members of the demonstration with vandalism, but Hawley indicated they were shouting in a “threatening” manner.
“Shame on you,” and “Stand up, fight back,” the protesters yelled, as they placed signs in front of the couple’s house and wrote “Trump lost” on the sidewalk.
Protesters also knocked on the door of the home, Hawley recounted in the complaint.
“[T]he doorbell rang, and from downstairs, I could hear loud noises at the door: knocking, stomping, shouting, or some combination,” she wrote in her statement. “I went upstairs to see what was happening. … The protestors were screaming with bullhorns and shouting ‘Come out, come out!’ I was frightened.”
Young, who belongs to the group ShutdownDC and called the incident a “candlelit vigil,” told ABC News that the complaint was harassment.
“If a summons has been issued, it is outrageous that a rich and powerful person — a United States senator — can go to their magistrate to get a summons to harass a normal person,” Young said.
Josh Hawley, alongside Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and 12 other Republicans, planned to object to the results of the 2020 election, which President Biden won, as lawmarkers counted electoral votes on Jan. 6. The process was interrupted for several hours when thousands of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
