Raymond Deskins, 61, of Sterling, Virginia, was identified and charged over the weekend by Loudoun County Sheriffs Office (LCSO) with a misdemeanor for simple assault after a video of him coughing on a protester outside the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling went viral on social media. While protesters had routinely appeared at the golf course during the arrival and departure of Trump’s motorcade over the last four years of his administration, it wasn’t until this past summer, with the presidential election looming, that a significant presence of Trump supporters began to appear and with it an escalation in law enforcement presence and complaints.
Raymond Deskins was a regular at these weekend events, often festooned with his inflatable Trump flotation device either around his waist or visible in his vehicle’s window as he drove up and down the block. What wasn’t as well known was whether the Raymond Deskins sentenced for defrauding the government in 2012 was the same person. When LCSO charged him on Sunday, I asked this question but did not receive confirmation until today.
WAMU in its report yesterday confirms in its last paragraph that it is the same man. “Deskins has a prior record; in 2012, he was convicted by a federal jury on mail fraud and false statements related to failing to disclose work he did to the Department of Labor’s Office of Worker’s Compensation Programs.” This is the first media report to my knowledge to connect the dots.
How ironic. A Trump supporter charged with simple assault outside Trump’s own golf course is also guilty of mail fraud.