By Ben Ziesloft | The Sentinel
Navy officials accused Michael Cassidy, the conservative Christian veteran who tore down a Satanic altar in the Iowa State Capitol, of involvement in “extremist activity” as they seek to discharge him from the Navy, according to documents exclusively provided to The Sentinel.
Cassidy destroyed a statue installed by the Satanic Temple of Iowa at the end of last year, as first reported by The Sentinel, before he surrendered himself to security officers.
Even after prosecutors dropped hate crime charges against Cassidy this spring, the Navy Reserve Forces Command accused him of “extremist activity” as defined by an order issued under the Biden administration three years ago and said his actions were inconsistent with the First Amendment.
The accusations mean that Cassidy, who has worked for nearly a decade at Naval Air Station Meridian as a Navy instructor pilot and then as a private military contract pilot, would be permanently barred from working as an instructor pilot and as an officer in the Navy Reserve.
Rear Admiral Michael Steffen, the commander of the Navy Reserve Forces Command, ordered in a final civil action report obtained by The Sentinel that Cassidy must be “made to show cause for retention” in the Navy at a board of inquiry and recommended his removal.
Admiral Steffen wrote that the actions from Cassidy last year in Iowa were “discriminatory, religiously motivated, and deprived the Satanic Temple of Iowa and its members of their constitutional rights.”
The report claimed that the actions “undermine morale and reduce combat readiness,” call into question the ability of Cassidy to “follow orders from, or effectively lead and serve with, persons of diverse backgrounds,” and damage “the nation’s trust and confidence” in the Navy.
Steffen admitted that the hate crime charges were dropped in exchange for the payment of a fine and a third-degree criminal mischief conviction which will eventually be expunged, but claimed that the dropped charges do not “change the nature of his actions.”
Davis Younts, an attorney who represents Cassidy, said in remarks to The Sentinel that he has witnessed a trend of Christian conservatives facing similar accusations in recent years under the Biden administration for holding or acting upon their religious or political convictions.
“There is an increasing pattern of clients and others reaching out to me who have traditional Christian beliefs or whose perceived political beliefs are different from those of the current administration in the White House, who are quick to label them as extremists,” Younts commented.
“It is pretty clear that the ongoing tyranny of using the administrative state to punish people who engage in wrongthink is not going to stop if Harris is elected.”
Biden administration officials indeed faced controversy when they issued the updated policy against purported “extremist activity,” which is defined as “advocating or engaging in unlawful force or violence to achieve goals that are political, religious, discriminatory, or ideological in nature.”
Such accusations of “extremist activity” have nevertheless been directed toward servicemembers who hold to historic Christian or conservative convictions as well as civilians outside of the military.
Justice Department officials, for instance, announced a crackdown against parents concerned with the conduct of their government schools prompted by a letter from the National School Boards Association which likened the activities of such parents to “domestic terrorism.”
“The same administration upset over religious rights for Satanists still has limits for what kind of speech they would tolerate in public,” Younts added to The Sentinel.
“They would never, for example, tolerate a statue of Hitler, especially in a government building. Their outrage toward my client and his actions is simply performative and the targeting of an ideological enemy.”
Younts previously predicted to The Sentinel that Cassidy would face legal challenges from the Navy despite the dismissal of the hate crime charges, which were filed by a county attorney whose campaign has benefited from entities funded by progressive billionaire George Soros, and under which he could have spent five years in prison.
Younts noted that any excess contributions from a fundraiser for Cassidy hosted by The Sentinel will be used to defend other Christian and conservative veterans through a legal nonprofit called Stand With Warriors.
First published on the new conservative news site, The Sentinel
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