Jan ‘Jay’ Carey torched the Stars and Stripes to protest against Trump’s executive order banning flag burning
The prosecution of a man who burned the American flag near the White House in protest of an executive order against flag burning has been dropped by the US Department of Justice.
On Friday, the justice department moved to dismiss charges against Jan “Jay” Carey, 55, a military combat veteran who set the flag on fire in Lafayette Square in Washington DC in August, the day that Donald Trump signed a presidential order to crack down on flag burning.
“I’m burning this flag as a protest to that illegal fascist president that sits in that house,” Carey shouted to onlookers as he set fire to the flag. He was promptly arrested by police.
The justice department didn’t explain its decision to drop the case against Carey, who served in Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan. The move came just days before a deadline set on Monday for prosecutors to respond to claims by Carey’s lawyers that he had been the subject of an unwarranted attempt to curtail his first amendment rights, which include freedom of speech.
