An activist who protested outside the home of White House adviser Stephen Miller and distributed fliers containing his Virginia address will not face state criminal charges, after a local prosecutor determined there was no probable cause.
In a 166-page court filing, the Arlington and Falls Church Commonwealth Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti said that she had reviewed evidence against Barbara Wien and found there was “nothing in the proceeds of the search warrant supports criminal prosecution” for violations of a state law that criminalizes using someone’s identity or address as a means to coerce, intimidate or harass. Violations of that law constitute a misdemeanor.
“It would neither accomplish the ends of justice nor discharge the Commonwealth’s ethical obligations of fair prosecution to initiate any charges,” she wrote, adding that charging her for protesting against the Trump administration’s policies also would likely violate her constitutionally protected free speech rights.
Wien, a former college professor and longtime political activist in Arlington, Virginia, has been under a state investigation since last year, after she distributed fliers last August and September depicting Miller on a “Wanted” poster for “crimes against humanity.”
The fliers contained his Arlington address, and they also provided a QR code that urged people to demand a congressional investigation.
A second flyer distributed in his neighborhood, meanwhile, referred to Miller as the “alt-right extremist behind Trump’s most abhorrent policies, Project 2025 and your new neighbor in Arlington, Va.”
In making her determination not to bring charges, Dehghani-Tafti noted that the wanted flyer “called neither for any action at or near his residence, nor for any action by the viewer against Mr. Miller.”
“The sole call to action was to a traditionally and clearly protected political activity, encouraging residents to petition Congress to investigate Mr. Miller’s actions based on the wanted flyer’s allegations,” she wrote.