Let’s begin at the end: “WHEREAS, Scott Thomas Smith has been publicly and falsely accused of ‘domestic terrorism’ and ‘hate crimes’ for attempting to advocate for his daughter, a victim of sexual assault … NOW, THEREFORE, I, Glenn A. Youngkin, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia … do hereby grant unto Scott Thomas Smith this Absolute Pardon from the conviction for Disorderly Conduct handed down by the General District Court of the County of Loudoun on August 17, 2021.”

So reads the conclusion of the pardon issued on Sunday by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to Scott Smith, a Loudoun County father who, as The Hill reports, “was convicted of disorderly conduct following a heated confrontation at a public school board meeting, which he attended ‘as a concerned parent’ after his daughter was sexually assaulted in the school bathroom.”

Our Emmy Griffin first reported on this crime and the subsequent cover-up by the Loudoun Country school board more than two years ago. At the time, she wrote:

On May 28, Smith was called to Stone Bridge High School where his ninth-grade daughter attended. He was informed that she had been physically assaulted by a male student in the bathroom. When he arrived and had a chance to assess the situation, he discovered it was far more sickening than just his daughter being beaten up. She had been sexually assaulted. … When the school put out a statement about the incident later, it made it seem that Smith was the one in the wrong for being angry and causing a ruckus. … The boy who assaulted Smith’s daughter was a bisexual student who sometimes wore skirts and took advantage of males being allowed into women’s spaces to commit this crime.

The phony “disorderly conduct” charge against Smith stems from a June 2021 school board meeting that took place shortly after his daughter was assaulted. At the meeting, Smith was confronted by Jackie Schworm, “a radical Leftist who had just spoken to Smith’s daughter, [and who] then sought out Smith and threatened to use social media to ruin his business,” The Daily Wire reports. “A police officer grabbed Smith from behind, and a struggle ensued.” By now, the footage from that meeting is famous.

On May 28, 2021, Loudoun County dad Scott Smith’s daughter was s*xually assaulted in her high school bathroom by a transgender.

In August of 2021, Smith was convicted of disorderly conduct after he blew up at a school board meeting for their lack of action.

Today, Smith was… pic.twitter.com/iPtueoPEgE

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 10, 2023

After the incident, the National School Boards Association sent an infamous letter to the Biden administration likening Smith and parents like him to “domestic terrorists.” That’s when the Biden Justice Department, led by corrupt Attorney General Merrick Garland, was weaponized against parents through the creation of an FBI task force supposedly designed to address violent threats made against school officials. And that’s when Virginia’s then-Republican candidate for governor began making a name for himself. As our Thomas Gallatin wrote just prior to the state’s gubernatorial election, “Youngkin has to great effect championed parents’ rights against those of teachers unions and the leftist agenda of the political elites.”

Since that school board incident, it’s been quite an ordeal for Smith. “I’m thankful that the Youngkin administration gave me an off-ramp to these charges that never should have happened,” he said. “It’s kind of bittersweet, because I really looked forward to winning this in court. But unfortunately, our justice system is so screwed up right now that I didn’t feel that I could potentially get a fair shot in court. That’s what should scare every American — that I had to take this because I could not trust our justice system.”

The local justice system of which Smith speaks is led by Buta Biberaj, a hard-leftist who refuses to prosecute shoplifters and other politically correct criminals but decided to throw the book at Smith and seek jail time against him — all the better to discourage other concerned parents from exercising their constitutional rights at school board meetings and elsewhere.

“This political stunt by Governor Youngkin is an unprecedented and inappropriate intervention into an active legal case,” huffed Biberaj in a statement. “He chose to interfere in the legal process but not for justice but for political gain. … The justice system does not work when a Governor becomes the judge and jury.”

Youngkin, of course, didn’t become the judge and jury here. What he became was a constitutional corrective to a two-tiered “progressive” justice system run amok. His pardon of Smith was a bold and refreshing move — a move that can only bolster his stature among Republicans, including those who think Youngkin has the right stuff to be president someday.