The Department of Justice (DOJ) will reportedly not pursue prosecution of a top Democrat staffer who allegedly vandalized posters in the Capitol complex outside Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s (R-GA) office.
Just the News reported Monday that Timothy Duane Hysom, chief of staff for Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), was referred for criminal charges by Capitol Police, but the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to approve an arrest warrant.
“Capitol Police asked federal prosecutors back in March for an arrest warrant for Timothy Hysom, 51, a longtime Democrat congressional staffer who worked for Rep. Adam Schiff before rising to be Auchincloss’s top aide, after capturing Hysom on hidden camera security footage defacing Greene’s posters with stickers with religious messages, according to copy of the arrest warrant obtained by Just the News,” the outlet reported.
“Police said they believed Hysom may have been involved in seven defacing of posters outside Greene’s office in the Longworth Congressional Office Building between January and March and that he declined to be interviewed when confronted,” Just the News reported. Hysom was offered a “non-custodial interview and he declined and retained counsel,” according to a copy of the arrest warrant.
“Based on the aforementioned, it is your affiant’s belief that the defendant, Timothy Duane Hysom … did violate DC Code § 22–3312.01 Defacing Public or Private Property,” read the arrest warrant, which can be accessed here.
Just the News noted that this was “the same U.S. Attorney’s office that pursued the Jan. 6 defendants.”
Superior Court of the District of Columbia
Last week, staffers from “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” were charged with unlawful entry into an office building for the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Nine individuals were arrested on Thursday night for entering the Longworth House Office Building, which was closed to the public at that point, after they previously had been escorted out of another building for trying to conduct interviews related to the January 6 committee hearings,” The Daily Wire reported. The staffers were found near the offices of Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), according to Deadline.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Friday highlighted an apparent double-standard based on politics.
The Colbert staffers, Carlson said, were “charged with unlawful entry into the Capitol complex — now that’s the exact same charge that many January 6 defendants face.”
“We’ll just get right to it: It’s likely that some members of Stephen Colbert’s team will be held in solitary confinement for a year and a half without being charged,” he asserted. “Why? Because this is an insurrection.”
“Joking aside,” Carlson continued, “How could they not be held for a year and half in solitary confinement without being charged? Because the precedent is in place. And how in the world can Adam Schiff, again, who spent the last year and a half eliminating the civil liberties of Trump voters on the basis of January 6, do the exact same thing and not face punishment?”