Attorneys Mark and Pat McCloskey have sued Congresswoman Cori Bush and State Rep. Rasheen Aldridge alleging they promoted the rally that led to their arrest two years ago.
“It came out of an assault on our house in 2020,” Mark McCloskey said. “I was waiting to see whether or not anybody else was going to bring any action against them and it was getting to be two years on my intentional tort statute. So, I went ahead and filed it.”
Causes of action in their complaint include engaging in an intentional wrongful act.
“Rasheen Aldridge, who's now in the Missouri House, was bragging on TV a couple of days before about how he doesn’t like the concept of peaceful protests and that they have to be violent,” McCloskey told the St. Louis Record. “They have to break the law in order to get their message across and so there's no question in my mind that what they did and every time they staged one of these events, it was specifically designed to be violent.”
The McCloskeys gained national prominence after brandishing an assault rifle and a semi-automatic pistol in front of their St. Louis home while George Floyd demonstrators marched towards former Mayor Lyda Krewson’s nearby home.
“We’re seeking a variety of damages,” McCloskey said. “They destroyed a 132-year-old historic gateway and also just the shock of having 350 to 500 people standing in front of my house screaming.”
Although the couple was arrested and charged with misdemeanors, defined as crimes of moral turpitude, they were pardoned by Gov. Mike Parson and commended by former U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We live in a frightening time,” McCloskey said. “This is not the United States of America anymore. This is not a free Republic. This is a country where we have thought police and we have a Department of Justice that is really just out there to arrest and intimidate the political opposition.”
After gaining national prominence, McCloskey decided to run for office as a Republican. He is vying for Sen. Roy Blunt’s seat.
“There's only one unforgivable crime in America these days and that's standing up against the Left,” McCloskey added.
“They will come in and arrest people, kick down their doors and seize all their electronics with no explanation and no charges ever being filed. It's not too hard to suspect that there are some experts who work for the powers that be who, if they take your computer, might accidentally find something deep down in your hard drive that even you didn't know was there because they put it there and then charge you with some kind of a crime.”