A heartbreaking video shows a little 3-year-old girl watching the FBI arrest her father for non-violently protesting at the Capitol on January 6.
Her father, Casey Cusick, and grandfather, 73-year-old Purple Heart veteran and pastor James Cusick, were both arrested on Thursday morning. Her grandfather’s friend was also arrested as he brought his wife home from the heart doctor. None are accused of violence or vandalism.
They have been charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority; disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building; and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol Grounds.
Casey’s wife Ruth, James, and Casey Cusick
, the three men were all arrested around the same time.
As Casey was arrested, his confused daughter asked her mom about what was going on.
“Mommy? Why are they locking Daddy’s hands?” the little girl sweetly asks.
(Story continues below the videos)
In a nearby town, her grandfather was also being arrested. The Gateway Pundit spoke to his daughter who was home at the time.
“This morning I saw a sheriff pull up in our driveway with his lights on and there was about four or five other cars with them,” James’ daughter Staci told the Gateway Pundit. “They came up to our front door and I told my dad to go answer it. As he started towards the door they started banging and banging and saying ‘open up we have a warrant.’ He opened the door and they asked him his name and to step outside.”
Staci explained that the officers saw her standing in the kitchen and demanded that she also go outside. When she got into the front yard she saw them telling her elderly father to turn around and proceeded to handcuff him.
“They asked me my name and I told them I was his daughter Staci. They said they were not looking for me, but told me to put my hands on the back of the sheriff’s vehicle. My dad asked what it was about and they told him it was because he entered the Capitol building on January 6.”
James Cusick was shocked, she said, to find out what the arrest was about. When he was at the Capitol he was friendly with officers, who directed him to a bathroom. His daughter says that they never told him to leave. He began to defend himself, but the agents and sheriffs reminded him that everything he says can be used against him and to wait until he has a lawyer.
“I asked him if they would take the handcuffs off of him because I was upset seeing my 73-year-old father in handcuffs. They said no,” Staci said.
After a search and some questioning, they took Staci and her father inside and asked him to get the clothing items he wore that day, which he did.
They also asked him to get his passport and told Staci to bring it to court when she goes to pick him up after his arraignment. She was told that he will be tried in the state of Virginia or Washington, DC.
“I told them that my dad is a veteran and he has never ever been in trouble with the law. They told me that they understand that, but ‘he did break the law,'” she said. “I told them my dad is opposed to any type of vandalism and that he never even saw any when he was there. When he was standing there in the Capitol, the police or guards, not sure which they were, were talking to him and being kind. They showed him where the bathrooms were. Nobody was telling them to get out. There was never any type of warning that they were breaking the law. None of that was happening.”
Photographs from the Department of Justice back up Cusick’s story and show him casually speaking with officers.
“They said that they understand that and that they’re ‘not the bad guys, we’re just here doing what we’re told,'” Staci said. “My dad loves this country. He volunteered to go to Vietnam and fight. He served 16 months there proudly. He has taken so many kids on trips to Washington, DC, to let them see this great country. He’s very passionate about this nation. He’s a pastor and he holds the Constitution in a very high regard. He hates what is happening to this country, but he would never vandalize or harm any government property, or anything for that matter. He’s a very upstanding man and I was devastated to see him taken away.”
Her voice shaking as she began to cry, Staci added, “there’s just no reason for it. He did nothing to deserve what we saw this morning. I don’t understand why they would feel okay doing this to someone like him. I think they felt bad about it, but they kept saying it’s their job.”
Staci said it made her uneasy to know that people who see that this is wrong would still be willing to do it, “because it’s their job.”
Famed attorney John Pierce’s new organization the National Constitutional Law Union Inc. (NCLU) has taken the case.
“The process obviously continues of federal authorities rounding up American citizens with respect to January 6th. The NCLU is honored to be stepping in to provide support for these defendants and their lawyers. It is a very unique, difficult and uncertain time in American history. What is certain is that these defendants will be pleading not guilty to all charges. We look forward to trial and getting to the bottom of what actually happened on January 6th,” Pierce told .
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