The deputy attorney general in Virginia, Monique Miles, has resigned after The Washington Post questioned her over a series of Facebook posts where she peddled conspiracies about the 2020 election and heaped accolades on the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol.
Her departure is more than local palace intrigue. As the deputy appointed by newly red Virginia’s Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, Miles was in a position to shape local election laws and provide advice about those processes to Virginia’s pro-Trump Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
On Jan. 6, well after the Capitol assault got underway and a formal riot had been declared in the nation’s capital, Miles hopped on Facebook. The longtime conservative attorney was fired up.
“News flash: Patriots have stormed the Capitol. No Surprise. The deep state has awoken the sleeping giant. Patriots are not taking this lying down. We are awake, ready and will fight for our rights by any means necessary,” she wrote.
When friends commented, Miles defended the riot as a “peaceful protest.” Later that same day, The Washington Post revealed, Miles tweaked her original message on Facebook, writing that the day’s violence was the product of “antifa dressed as Patriots” and that Black Lives Matter “intimidation tactics” were underfoot.
“Patriots are peace loving. Antifa and BLM are not,” Miles said.
She also wrote dozens of posts in the wake of the 2020 election claiming election fraud was rampant and the result of Chinese interference. Echoing much of the disinformation that emanated from the former president and his attorneys at the time, Miles also falsely claimed election fraud was prevalent in states like Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
Miles once chided: “These left wing loonies better realize that [Donald John Trump] is getting a second term.”
Victoria LaCivita, a spokesperson for Miyares, said Thursday that the office was unaware of the conspiracy-fueled social media screeds until the newspaper brought it to light. As for Miyares, LaCivita said, he has been “very clear” that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that he condemns the Jan. 6 attacks.
Miles called The Washington Post’s reporting a “character assassination” in an email Thursday and suggested that “some liberals have their daggers out” for Black conservative women.
Miles nonetheless defended her post from Jan. 6, 2021, saying it was made “at a time when the news was still developing re: the facts around the election, the court cases, the Rally on the Ellipse and what happened at the capitol.”
The longtime attorney added: “What we know now about the election today is very different from what we knew on Election Day 2020 or even what we know on the day that President Biden was inaugurated in January 2021. I believe he is our president as he was certified as such.”
By the time Miles made her post on Jan. 6, Trump had already lost more than 60 lawsuits where he alleged election fraud was widespread and demanded results be invalidated. Conservative and liberal judges alike overwhelmingly rejected the claims—not to mention that Attorney General William Barr had already long declared there was zero evidence of fraud.
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
