Gov. Younkin announced yesterday that he was pardoning Scott Smith, the Loudoun County parent who was arrested two years ago at a school board meeting. This should bring an end to a saga that has dragged on in court ever since.

Mr. Youngkin’s office released a statement Sunday announcing the pardon of Scott Smith, who was charged after he rose to announce during a 2021 school board meeting that his daughter had been assaulted in a high school restroom by a boy “wearing a skirt.” The Loudoun County School Board was debating the subject of restroom use by transgender students at the meeting.

Mr. Smith was arrested after he clenched his fist and leaned toward a woman during an argument. Deputies dragged him to the ground as he continued struggling and arguing with them, an encounter seen in video that flew across the internet.

Mr. Smith was convicted of two misdemeanors in connection with the episode, but one of the charges — obstruction of justice — was later thrown out, and Mr. Smith was scheduled for trial on Sept. 25 in an appeal of the remaining charge — disorderly conduct.

In my opinion, police never had any justification for arresting Smith. A woman at the event was calling him a liar about the sexual assault of his daughter and allegedly threatening to try to harm his business because he opposed the bathroom policy under consideration. Smith admits he clenched his fish at his side and called her some names in return but he never became violent toward her. Here’s the video:

Especially given the circumstances here, i.e. his daughter had been assaulted at school, the school board had just lied about it to his face, etc. prosecutorial discretion should have resulted in no charges here. Smith celebrated the decision in a statement released by his attorneys.

What happened to my daughter was a horrible, but preventable tragedy that she will have to deal with for the rest of her life. And the way the public school system, the School Board, the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and SRO Department, and the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office handled this situation was abhorrent and completely unacceptable. My family has been living a nightmare that no family in America should have to endure. But rather than sit quietly and take it, I decided to stand up against the government – and for that I was branded a “domestic terrorist” and charged with crimes that I did not commit. I want to thank Governor Youngkin for his declaration that I am innocent, and for his absolute and unconditional pardon. While I was extremely confident in my lawyers’ abilities to defend me in court, I am grateful that the Governor recognizes that our justice system has been both weaponized and politicized to the point where my ability to receive a fair trial was in jeopardy.

Both Smith and his attorneys suggested he would have won in court even without the pardon. But the Democratic prosecutor (who had already been removed from the case) was not happy about it. She accused Youngkin of playing politics:

The commonwealth’s attorney for Loudoun County, Buta Biberaj (D) — whom a judge recused from Smith’s case — said Youngkin’s action was a political stunt. “This is an unprecedented and inappropriate intervention into an active legal case,” Biberaj said. “He chose to interfere in the legal process, and not for justice, but for political gain.”…

Biberaj said Youngkin’s comments on Fox that the case should never have been prosecuted “sends a message that he believes that the deputies lied about the facts of the case, that the magistrate wrongfully issued the arrest warrants, and the special prosecutor from Stafford, who is prosecuting the case, was engaging in wrongful prosecution … It’s a slap in the face for law enforcement.”

A Virginia circuit court judge last year recused Biberaj from Smith’s case after a request from his attorney to disqualify her. Smith’s attorneys had argued that she was biased against him and other parents who challenged the school system’s transgender policies.

While I support the pardon, I think it’s pretty clear that Youngkin is playing politics. According to Scott Smith, he never heard a single word from Gov. Youngkin in the past two years. Now, just two weeks before voting begins in an election that will determine control of the Virginia state senate, Youngkin announces this pardon.

Still, I think you could also make the argument that pardons are frequently treated as political and decisions about them are often made with an eye on the political impact they might have. So I’m not sure calling this political makes it much different than many other pardons. Here’s a local news report featuring a few brief reactions from Smith.