In a late breaking NYT story before the election, the elected (Democrat) Commonwealth Attorney of Arlington/Falls Church Virginia, Dehghani-Tafti, is accusing Virginia Attorney General Miyares of misusing his office to quash free speech and political opponents. Following a Trump administration request to Gov. Youngkin, the Virginia State Police sought a warrant to search an activist’s phone who was nonviolently organizing neighbors against Stephen Miller.
In recent weeks, the legal fight broadened into a battle over jurisdiction, with the county prosecutor handling the case accusing the state’s attorney general of trying to usurp her authority.
When the top prosecutor in Arlington, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, learned that federal agents had accompanied the local police to execute the warrant, she took the rare step of filing her own motion arguing that additional limits should be placed on what parts of Ms. Wien’s phone could be searched.
The accompanying federal agents were from the FBI, Homeland Security and the Secret Service. In response to Dehghani-Tafti’s rare motion, and the judges request for a pause, the AG Miyares intervened on the side of the State Police and objected. The judge ignored Miyares and narrowed the phone search and ruled the State police could not share the information with the Trump administration. The activist, Ms. Wien, broke no laws but the Virginia police with Miyares support seized the phone and are on a fishing expedition of signal chats and her contacts to threaten opponents of Miller/Trump. After almost 1 month, they still have her phone.
Ms. Wien’s lawyer, Bradley R. Haywood, said law enforcement agencies were misusing their authority to pursue a political critic.
The county prosecutor, a Democrat, has accused the state attorney general’s office, led by a Republican, of overstepping its authority in trying to intervene in the case.
Dehghani-Tafti strongly objects to Mirayes’ attempted interventions...
The state attorney general, she argued, had no jurisdiction to weigh in on a misdemeanor investigation. Doing so now, she added, was part of what she described as a larger pattern by Mr. Miyares’s office of trying to push the bounds of the criminal justice system.
Ms. Dehghani-Tafti accused the attorney general’s office of trying to “willfully ignore the constitutional rights of the citizens of the commonwealth in hopes that they will receive some relief later.” She added, “That is not justice.”
www.nytimes.com/…
It is a shame this article did not come out sooner before the election, but word has it the AG office pushed NYT for a delay. The race is tight between incumbent Miyares and challenger Democrat, Jay Jones. It appears that Miller and Trump could not get traction with federal statutes to go after this progressive activist in Arlington VA, and they couldn’t get traction with the Arlington police, but instead they went to Youngkin and Miyares to get the State Police to go fishing and intimidating. Miyares is a threat to our civil liberties. Jay Jones, for all his faults, must become the next attorney general of Virginia.
