CV NEWS FEED // The Capitol Police late Tuesday dropped its charges against Steve Nikoui, the Gold Star father who emotionally interrupted President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address two weeks ago.
The development came hours after a Republican congressman sent a letter to the agency’s chief asserting that Nikoui “did nothing wrong” in expressing his grief while Biden was speaking.
The New York Post reported that the decision not to prosecute Nikoui was ultimately made by Democratic Washington, D.C. Attorney General Brian Scwalb.
The Post indicated that the Gold Star father “was taken into custody by Capitol Police after he yelled, ‘Abbey Gate!’ and ‘Second Battalion, First Marines!’” during Biden’s March 8 speech. Capitol Police charged Nikoui with the misdemeanor of “crowding, obstructing, or incommoding Congress.”
Nikoui was the invited guest of Rep. Brian Mast, R-FL, and made his emotional comments from the gallery above the capitol floor. Each member of Congress is allowed to invite one guest to each State of the Union.
The Post reported:
Nikoui’s son, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, was one of 13 US service members killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26, 2021, as Kabul fell to the Taliban during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Kareem Nikoui was only 20 years old at the time of his death.
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In a Tuesday letter, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA urged Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger to drop the charges against the grieving father.
“Mr. Nikoui’s arrest for emotionally expressing his grief and seeking acknowledgment for his son’s sacrifice during the State of the Union … highlighted a profound disconnect between the sacrifices made by our service members and the recognition they deserve,” the congressman wrote.
“[Mr. Nikoui] has endured the unimaginable loss of his son who was tragically killed at the Abbey Gate bombing during the August 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal,” Issa added in his letter. “One year later, the Nikoui family suffered an additional heartbreaking loss when Kareem’s grieving brother took his own life.”
Issa called the father
a man of kindness and integrity, whose actions are driven by an unwavering love of country and a deep commitment to honoring the memory and sacrifices of his son and the other fallen heroes of Abbey Gate.
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Issa’s office noted in a Tuesday press release that “Nikoui’s outburst was in response to the lack of answers and accountability from the Biden Administration on the events and failures that led to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan which claimed the lives of 13 American servicemembers.”
“To this day, President Biden has not publicly stated the names of these fallen heroes,” the Congressman’s office stressed.
Again from the Post:
Nikoui has said he did not intend to interrupt Biden’s speech, but became frustrated after the president mentioned slain Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, who was allegedly killed by an “illegal” immigrant, but not his son, nor the 12 other US service members killed in the Abbey Gate blast.
“I’ve waited three years, I paid $3,000 and I’ve traveled 3,000 miles to finally hear my son’s name in the State of the Union,” he told the Daily Mail. “That trip to the State of the Union — what a kick in my ass.”
