RICHMOND, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — Governor Glenn Youngkin pardoned a father of his conviction for “disorderly conduct” that stemmed from the cover-up of the rape of the man’s daughter by a cross-dressing male student in a school bathroom.
Scott Smith’s conduct at a 2021 school board meeting formed the pretext for Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo that ordered federal law enforcement to closely surveil concerned citizens who spoke out against LGBT and COVID policies. The Loudoun County school board was implementing a new policy to allow male students to enter female bathrooms.
“Scott Smith is a dedicated parent who’s faced unwarranted charges in his pursuit to protect his daughter,” the Republican governor stated on Sunday. “Scott’s commitment to his child despite the immense obstacles is emblematic of the parental empowerment movement that started in Virginia.”
“In August of 2021, Smith was arrested and eventually convicted of two criminal charges after an incident got out of hand with Loudoun County Sheriff deputies at the board of education meeting,” ABC 7 reported.
“His conviction of resisting arrest was eventually tossed out,” the news outlet reported.
“I really appreciate what he has done because 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 to not just my family but everything that was going on in Loudoun County,” Smith told ABC 7.
Youngkin announced on Fox News Sunday that he pardoned Smith two days prior on Friday. The case is currently active as Smith was appealing the remaining conviction.
“In Virginia, parents matter and my resolve to empower parents is unwavering. A parent’s fundamental right to be involved in their child’s education, upbringing, and care should never be undermined by bureaucracy, school divisions or the state,” Youngkin stated in a news release. “I am pleased to grant Scott Smith this pardon and help him and his family put this injustice behind them once and for all.”
The former superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools, Scott Ziegler, currently faces charges for his cover-up of the sexual assault. “To my knowledge, we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms,” Ziegler said at the June 2021 school board meeting. He said “the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.”
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares led the effort to investigate the cover-up.
The pardon drew criticism from liberal Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj, who came into office with the support of a PAC tied to George Soros. She is up for re-election in November.
Biberaj called the pardon a “political stunt” and accused him of “an intentional attempt to influence the elections.”
Gov. Youngkin is once again using Loudoun County for his political gain. My full statement below. pic.twitter.com/fPYEksC93T
— Buta Biberaj (@ButaBiberaj) September 10, 2023
The liberal prosecutor stated:
He chose to interfere in the legal process but not for justice but for political gain. If the Governor truly believed that the evidence would show that the Republican sheriff lied about the facts and wrongfully arrested Smith, that the Magistrate wrongfully issued the arrest warrants, and that the Republican Special Prosecutor was wrongfully prosecuting him, Youngkin would have permitted the case to go to trial and let the truth be told. That is the system in America. The justice system does not work when a Governor becomes the judge and jury.
The cover-up came to the light of day after Daily Wire reporter Luke Rosiak wrote an extensive report detailing the assault. It came out in October 2021, against the backdrop of Youngkin’s campaign against Clinton family friend Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor. McAullife disregarded parental rights in his campaign while Youngkin, who originally ran as a moderate Republican businessman, used the issue to win the election in 2021.
“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe said, with reference to sexualized or other inappropriate content in school libraries and classrooms.
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