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Youngkin pardons Loudoun County father arrested at school board meeting after daughter was raped

September 10, 2023 | | Print Article

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced on Sunday that he has pardoned Loudoun County father Scott Smith, who was forcibly subdued by police, handcuffed, and arrested at a school board meeting in June 2021 for protesting against the sexual assault of his daughter by a gender-fluid boy wearing a skirt in a high school bathroom.

Smith, who faced a Soros-backed prosecutor and was convicted in August 2021 of disorderly conduct, maintained that the public school attempted to cover up his daughter’s assault.

“I spoke with Mr. Smith on Friday, and I had the privilege of telling Mr. Smith that I will pardon him, and we did that on Friday,” Youngkin told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream. “We righted a wrong. He should’ve never been prosecuted here. This was a dad standing up for his daughter.”

“His daughter had been sexually assaulted in the bathroom of a school, and no one was doing anything about it,” the governor stated.

It took his election as governor, Youngkin said, “and my directive to our attorney general, Jason Miyares, to investigate this, to uncover the fact that the superintendent had in fact covered it up.”

The governor said that the superintendent “was immediately terminated when the final report from the grand jury was issued.”

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“Mr. Smith did what any father would do, what any parent would do, which is stand up for their child,” Youngkin said. “And even worse, what then happened, was the perpetrator was moved to another school and sexually assaulted another young woman.”

“This was a gross miscarriage of justice,” Younkin added.

“I really liked what I heard the document say,” Smith told 7 News investigative reporter Scott Taylor of the pardon. “I think it’s pretty clear and convincing to the public that what happened to me that day should have never happened.”

“I’m glad that this is finally over,” he continued. “But it’s really just begun.”

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“What happened to me cannot ever happen to another American again,” Smith stated. “And it was kind of a bittersweet moment to me to accept this pardon, because a year ago, when I filed this appeal, I actually looked forward to my day in court with the jury trial. But as everything has played out over the last two years, and watched the justice system be questionably two-tiered, the justice system being politicized, it just was apparent to me that, unfortunately, in today’s America, getting a fair and free trial is next to impossible. Especially if your case has played out in the major media and it’s political.”

“So, again, I’m really thankful for the off-ramp,” Smith stressed, “but the lesson to be learned out of all of this is, I fought hard for two years and, basically, I had to accept a pardon and an off-ramp because of the condition of our justice system.  And that should scare every American out there.”

Smith, who spoke to Taylor prior to receiving the call from Governor Youngkin, said he was grateful to Youngkin, not just for the pardon, but for following through on his campaign promise.

“When he campaigned, he made it very clear that, if he was elected, he would do what he could to get to the bottom of what happened, and not just to my family, but everything that was going on in Loudoun County. And he did that. It was Proclamation Number 4, I believe, on the day he was sworn in.”

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He said that the special grand jury that was convened “put a stamp of factual stuff to that report.”

Still, Smith said, “there’s a lot of fight left.”

“I ask him to continue on for it with everything he said he’s going to do,” Smith said. “But it’s not over yet, and I hope his team and parents across Virginia unite and get this done.”

Melissa Fine
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