Lee Zeldin’s Alleged Attacker Arrested and Detained on Federal Assault Charges

The suspect had earlier been quickly released under an absurd New York state bail ‘reform’ law.

T he man accused of attacking Congressman Lee Zeldin during a speech in upstate New York remains in custody, under federal law.

David G. Jakubonis was charged with one count of assault on a member of Congress, based on a criminal complaint sworn to by an FBI agent and filed Saturday in federal district court in Rochester, N.Y. He will continue being held pending a detention hearing on Wednesday, July 27.

Strangely, New York state authorities in Monroe County had charged Jakubonis with mere attempted assault, notwithstanding that he was seen by many bystanders (and now by millions of Americans who have watched video of the media-covered event) physically grabbing Zeldin while wielding a dangerous weapon — a device that resembles brass-knuckles and has two spiked prongs, but can apparently be used as a keychain and is marketed as a defensive weapon. Jakubonis was released on his own recognizance under the bail “reform” championed by Democrats in New York — which they advocated even as violent crime surged during their “defund the police” crusade.

The fact that state prosecutors charged only attempted assault, rather than plain old assault with a deadly weapon, probably made no difference. While it was fortunate that Zeldin was not seriously injured, thanks to the quick action of bystanders, the Democrat “reforms” mean even a completed felony assault would not be eligible for detention pending the setting of bail conditions. So Jakubonis had to be released. New York, moreover, is the only state in the country that does not authorize judges to detain defendants pretrial based on a finding that they pose a danger to the community.

Zeldin is the state’s Republican candidate for governor. At the time of the attack, he was giving a speech on a parked flatbed truck outside a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall in Perinton, N.Y., a town on the Erie Canal in Monroe County. Jakubonis, an Iraq war veteran, lives in the village of Fairport, which is in Perinton.

During his speech, Zeldin addressed New York’s rising crime under governance by Democrats, including Governor Kathy Hochul, who took over in Albany after Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, and whom Zeldin faces in the November election.

In his remarks prior to being attacked, Zeldin rebuked Democrats’ mulish determination to end the system of cash bail. Prior to their “reform,” judges could condition the release of most accused criminals on the posting of cash or property. Such assets would then be returned to the accused at the end of the proceedings, provided they had made required court appearances. Progressives claim that their “reforms” apply only to petty and nonviolent crimes; in reality, they apply to many serious crimes, including felony assaults (if there are no serious injuries), as well as many instances of burglary, robbery, and arson — after all, those are “only” property crimes, right?

After the attack, Zeldin predicted that his assailant would quickly be released. He could be confident in that prediction because it was inevitable under the laws that he is running for governor precisely to try to change.

Laughably, as the New York Times reports, “Democrats have accused Mr. Zeldin of trying to exploit the attack for political gain.” The potentially lethal assault on Zeldin occurred on the same day that the Democrat-controlled January 6 committee convened a primetime nationally televised session, over a year and a half after the Capitol riot, unabashedly designed to deflect public attention from the woeful Biden administration, spotlight the depredations of Donald Trump and his supporters, and — as the Times put it — “give Democrats a chance to recast [their] midterm message” as we look ahead to the fall campaign.

The swift release of Jakubonis on his own recognizance sparked outcry. Sadly, this sort of thing goes on every day in New York, but the vicious assault of a high-profile political official brought renewed public attention to it — indeed, national attention. I began pointing out Friday morning on Fox News and in a New York Post column (as well as in an NR post yesterday) that the prosecution of Zeldin’s alleged assailant had to be federal if it was to be a serious matter. Moving the prosecution to federal court would result in real bail proceedings, potential pretrial detention on danger-to-the-community grounds, and the possibility of a significant prison sentence.

Upon arresting Jakubonis Saturday afternoon, the feds charged him with one count of assault on a member of Congress under Section 351(e) of the U.S. penal code. This is slightly different from my suggestion that he be charged with assault on a federal official under Section 111. Either fits, but I think the Justice Department’s charge is better than my suggestion.

The potential prison term under Section 111 is more severe — 20 years, rather than ten years under Section 351(e). But under the circumstances (which I’ll come to), ten years is plenty. Meantime, Section 111 would require the government to prove that, at the time of the assault, Zeldin was engaged in his official duties as a U.S. congressman or was attacked on account of those duties. Zeldin is a New York representative, was on duty, and was giving a political speech, so the feds have enough evidence on this score; nevertheless, he is running for governor and that campaign was the real purpose of the speech, so the defense could at least have tried to claim the attack was unrelated to Zeldin’s official duties.

By contrast, Section 351(e) requires no proof that Zeldin was engaged in his official federal duties. Further, it expressly provides that “the Government need not prove that the defendant knew that the victim of the offense was protected by this section.” All prosecutors need to establish is that Zeldin was a congressman and that Jakubonis assaulted him with a dangerous weapon.

Zeldin, as noted above, was not seriously injured. That, however, does not mean he was not injured at all. He was grabbed and tackled to the ground, in addition to being menaced with the weapon. This is significant because the potential ten-year penalty under Section 351(e) is not triggered unless “a personal injury” results. The personal injury need not be life-threatening or particularly serious, but there does have to be a real injury of some kind. Otherwise, the maximum sentence is one year’s imprisonment. (To the contrary, under Section 111, prosecutors need not prove bodily injury; the penalty is up to eight years if there is physical contact with the victim, and 20 years if a dangerous weapon is used.)

As I noted yesterday, the prosecution is being handled by the office of Trini E. Ross, the Biden-appointed U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York. (The WDNY is headquartered in Buffalo but also handles cases in the district’s Rochester courthouse.)

Above, I observed that ten years is a sufficient ceiling for prison exposure under the circumstances. David Jakubonis seems like a troubled soul. According to the complaint, after being given Miranda warnings following his initial arrest, he told Monroe County police that he was drinking whiskey before that attack. He claimed not to know who Zeldin was, much less that he was a political figure. Upon being shown a video of the assault, he told police that he “must have checked out” and found the incident — as the police put it — disgusting. We’re early in the investigation, but anyone familiar with how complaints are written would tell you that federal prosecutors and FBI agents would not have included these details unless they believed them to be true.

We should be deeply alarmed by the number of emotionally and mentally disturbed people who exacerbate their problems by abusing alcohol and drugs and end up committing violent crimes. Societal sanity, however, begins by treating those crimes as serious law-breaking and addressing the psychological dimension in that context. Otherwise, inevitably, mental illness and distress are ignored and violent crime runs rampant.

As a friend at the Post quipped to me, not every New Yorker is a member of Congress. The Empire State will continue its descent into the abyss unless its government goes back to protecting its citizens from sociopaths the same way the federal government protects its officials.