Politics

Prosecutors ‘Are Pro-Criminal And Anti-Law Enforcement’: Jeanine Pirro Blasts McCloskey Indictment

Fox News

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Fox News host Jeanine Pirro said Tuesday that the decision to indict Mark and Patricia McCloskey indicates how prosecutors “are pro-criminal and anti-law enforcement.”

A grand jury Tuesday indicted the McCloskeys for unlawful use of weapons and evidence tampering.

During frequent media appearances, Mark McCloskey argued that the June incident — involving Black Lives Matter demonstrators in front of their house — was anything but peaceful. (RELATED: McCloskeys Appear To Make Memorabilia Out Of Their Armed Confrontation With Protesters) 

“This is a political prosecution brought by a renegade prosecutor, funded with $200,000 from the [George] Soros PAC,” Pirro told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in reference to St. Louis circuit attorney Kim Gardner.

She received financial assistance during her campaign to become circuit attorney in 2016 from the Safety and Justice Committee, a PAC supported by Soros, according to the Missouri Times.

“They’re telling the country that you protesters can do whatever you want, you can burn things down, you’ll get away with it because we’re not going to prosecute you; that we are finding prosecutors who are pro-criminal and anti-law enforcement. And that is an upside down world.”

Pirro said the McCloskeys “had no other choice” but to reach for their weapons “and they had the right to defend themselves.” She called the decisions to proceed with a prosecution “a total shock and a violation, I think, of their Constitutional rights. It’s backwards.”

Carlson suggested Gardner was attempting to send “a very clear message” to Americans: “you don’t have a right to defend yourself or your property from the mob. That’s what they’re telling the country.” (RELATED: ‘Unprecedented’: Missouri Lawyer Says Political Posturing Is To Blame For St. Louis Couple’s Gun Seizure)

ST LOUIS, MO - JUNE 2: Graffiti is seen on a burned out 7Eleven after riots and looting overnight on June 2, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. Four police officers were reportedly shot in St. Louis overnight during violent clashes with protesters leading to looting and damage to local businesses. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)

Graffiti is seen on a burned out 7Eleven after riots and looting overnight on June 2, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)

“If you can just imagine, Tucker, that it’s Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening, you’re about to have a barbecue with your wife and then you hear a crowd and all of a sudden the security gate to your area is knocked down,” Pirro said, recounting how the McCloskeys described the event.

Noting that St. Louis police were not responding to emergency calls that day, Pirro claimed, without citing evidence, that the “so-called peaceful protesters … were brandishing weapons themselves … were threatening the family … were threatening to burn the home, to move into the home, to kill the McCloskeys.”

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner at those participating in a nonviolent protest, and while we are fortunate this situation did not escalate into deadly force, this type of conduct is unacceptable in St. Louis,” Gardner wrote in her statement announcing her prosecution.