Charges have been dropped against the father of a U.S. Marine killed in Afghanistan who interrupted President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address earlier this month.
Steve Nikoui, 51, had been charged with a misdemeanor after he was removed from the chamber and arrested by Capitol Police for refusing to stop heckling Biden with shouts of “Abbey Gate”—the place where his son, Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, was killed in a suicide bombing during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The grieving father told The Daily Beast at the time of his son’s death that he held Biden responsible.
On Tuesday evening, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) announced that Nikoui would not be prosecuted over the incident. “BREAKING: All charges against Gold Star parent Steve Nikoui have been dropped,” Issa wrote on X. “He did nothing wrong. And this is the right decision.”
The Washington, D.C., Attorney General’s office told Fox News that it chose not to prosecute Nikoui much in the same way it had declined to pursue cases against protesters in the past. Nikoui was reportedly “thrilled and humbled” when he heard the news from Rep. Issa.
