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The previous Mississippi congressional and legislative candidate has raised practically $98,000 on-line for his authorized protection fund.
Michael Cassidy, a former Mississippi congressional and legislative candidate, has now been charged with a hate crime in Iowa for beheading a statue erected by The Satanic Temple on the state’s Capitol.
The incident occurred in December 2023. Cassidy was initially arrested and charged with fourth diploma legal mischief. He was later launched.
READ MORE: Former Mississippi congressional and legislative candidate arrested in Iowa for beheading Satanic Temple statue
A report from KCCI TV out of Des Moines on Tuesday revealed that court docket paperwork present the price to switch or restore the statue is between $750 and $1,500, and notes that the act by Cassidy was dedicated “in violation of particular person rights” beneath Iowa’s hate crime statute.
“Each items of proof carry the cost to third degree-criminal mischief, a category D felony,” KCCI notes.
Cassidy has repeatedly defended his actions throughout social media interviews, together with with Tucker Carlson simply days after the incident. He advised the previous FoxNews host that giving equal time to evil and good is just not obligatory.
Cassidy, a former U.S. Navy pilot, later posted on X, “To those that suppose Satanic altars have an equal proper to be in Capitols as Nativity scenes: If a gaggle devoted to the worship of Osama Bin Laden (even when only a unhealthy joke) was organized as ‘a non secular group’, ought to it obtain equal entry to show a shrine to Bin Laden?”
In line with KCCI, the Salem, Massachusetts-based Satanic Temple, based in 2013, doesn’t imagine in Devil however describes itself as a “non-theistic non secular group” that advocates for secularism.
“It’s separate from the Church of Devil, which was based within the Sixties,” KCCI provides.
A GiveSendGo account was created to assist Cassidy’s authorized bills, directed to his lawyer Davis Younts, a retired Air Drive lieutenant colonel who served within the JAG Corps. So far, that on-line fundraising has yielded practically $98,000.
As for why Cassidy was in Iowa within the first place, he advised Benny Johnson in an interview that after seeing the statue on social media after which that it remained within the Capitol and was not a joke, he “purchased a airplane ticket on a whim” to go to see it for himself. When he noticed it in individual, Cassidy stated, “I knew that it couldn’t stand so I took it down.”
Cassidy stated after beheading the statue he cleaned up the realm and went to safety of his personal will to show himself in for the motion. He was not instantly given a quotation however was later referred to as again to the Capitol advanced and given a quotation.
As beforehand reported by Magnolia Tribune, Cassidy is a Maryland native who now resides in Mississippi as a flight teacher. He ran for Congress within the third District in 2022, pushing incumbent Congressman Michael Visitor to a runoff within the Republican Major earlier than shedding 67% to 33%. Cassidy then ran unsuccessfully in 2023 for the Legislature, vying for Home District 45. He was unopposed within the Republican Major in August however misplaced the November Normal Election to Democrat Keith Jackson by a vote of 55% to 38% within the three-man contest.
Cassidy can be arraigned in Iowa on February 15.
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