Ranking Member Raskin’s Statement on New Executive Order on Flag Desecration

Washington, D.C. (August 26, 2025)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued the following statement after President Donald Trump issued an executive order targeting the desecration of the American flag:

“Today, in the Oval Office, Donald Trump vowed to throw the book at anyone who incites ‘violent crimes’ by desecrating the flag. Yet one of his first acts in office, in that same room just seven months ago, was to grant full and unconditional pardons to violent insurrectionists who themselves used the American flag as a weapon to attack and beat American police officers defending the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. His pardon covered people like: 

• Peter Stager who beat a police officer with a flagpole carrying the American flag, as the officer was dragged into the crowd of rioters, facedown and headfirst. As Stager watched fellow rioters beat another officer, he stood over the officer and yelled: “Fuck you! Fucking traitor!” Pointing at the Capitol, he screamed: “Everybody in there is a treasonous traitor. Every single one of these Capitol law enforcement officers, death is the remedy, that is the only remedy they get!”
• Adam Ryan Obest who used a metal flagpole with an American flag and a smoke grenade to assault a line of police officers trying to prevent insurrectionists from entering the Capitol.
• James Robert Elliott who arrived at the Capitol with a ballistic vest, a helmet, hard-knuckle gloves and a flagpole with the American flag that he used to hit a lot of police officers. Later, he bragged about his assault, texting “I bonked 2 cops … never thought I’d say that lol”.
• Douglas Harrington who came to the Capitol with an American flag attached to a long metal pipe that he used to attack multiple police officers.
• Brian Jackson who attacked a line of police officers in the Tunnel to the Capitol with a stolen police riot shield and a long flagpole with an American flag attached that he threw at them like a spear. He later wrote in a text message: “We love our president and we stood up for America today be proud we did it and f— these hoe ass cops that are traitors we f— ed up that capital up today !!!”

“Donald Trump rewarded their violence and obscene, bloody flag desecration with a pardon and clemency.

“This new executive order is a joke and yet another example of Trump’s Gangster State in action: Use violence and intimidation against the government to take office, and use violence and intimidation once in government to entrench yourself. Trump knows nothing about patriotism.”