Local leaders discuss effects of SNAP suspension in Buncombe County
Buncombe County officials held a press conference Oct. 30, 2025 to discuss how the statewide SNAP suspension will affect local residents and families.
- Asheville-area resident Jan “Jay” Carey, 54, was arrested Aug. 25, after burning an American flag outside of the White House.
- Carey, who is disabled and is a veteran of the U.S. Army, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Sept. 17. A motion to dismiss the charges was filed Oct. 24.
- Carey’s attorneys claim the charges brought against him are ambiguous and aren’t applicable to flag burning. He is the subject of ‘vindictive prosecution,’ they said in the filing.
The Western North Carolina veteran who was arrested after burning an American flag in Lafayette Park has filed a motion to dismiss charges brought against him, with his attorneys arguing the law he was charged under is inapplicable to flag burning and that he is being “vindictively prosecuted.”
On Aug. 25, Asheville-area resident Jan “Jay” Carey, 54, burned an American flag outside of the White House, yelling that he was doing it “in protest of the illegal, fascist president that sits in that house.” He was arrested that evening by U.S. Secret Service and then transferred to U.S. Park Police, according to federal court filings. He was charged with lighting a fire in an undesignated area and “lighting a fire in a manner that causes damage to real property and park resources” on Aug. 27, according to federal court filings.
Carey’s arrest came just hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Prosecuting Burning of the American Flag,” seeking to increase criminal prosecutions against protestors who burn the American flag. Trump called for “one year” sentences for violators despite the 1989 supreme court case Texas v. Johnson, which defined flag burning as “symbolic speech,” meaning it is protected by the First Amendment. Carey had decided to burn the flag in protest of the executive order, he told the Citizen Times in August.
Carey, who is disabled and is a veteran of the U.S. Army, pleaded not guilty to the charges on Sept. 17. The motion to dismiss was filed Oct. 24, with his attorney’s both rejecting the applicability of the charges and calling them politically motivated.
‘Vindictive’ prosecution
Carey was charged with violating two federal regulations pertaining generally to wilderness areas under the National Park Service that previous cases have found nonapplicable for urban settings such as Lafayette Park, Carey’s lawyers argued in the motion to dismiss. Carey is represented by Nick Place and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a nonprofit legal organization.
Carey’s attorneys went on to say that he was being “vindictively prosecuted” because “he expressed a point of view in opposition to that of the President of the United States and in defense of Americans’ freedom of expression.” The charges are in violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, they argued.
“The language of the operative executive order and President Trump’s subsequent statements regarding flag burning provide objective evidence that the prosecutor in this case is merely a stalking horse for President Trump’s animus toward those who exercise their First Amendment right to burn the American flag,” the motion reads.
The burning of other flags and objects has been permitted in Lafayette Park, they noted.
“Historic practice in other contexts confirms that the use of fire for expressive purposes is permitted within Lafayette Park. Candlelight vigils occur frequently in Lafayette Park, and permits are issued for vigils involving hundreds or thousands of candle-bearing participants,” Carey’s attorneys wrote.
The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to request for comment. The department’s deadline to reply is Nov. 7.
Carey told the Citizen Times that he felt it was “possible” that the Trump administration is seeking to prosecute him to reopen arguments regarding flag burning related to the 1989 Supreme Court case.
“I feel like that these charges are acting like a placeholder to get me into court,” Carey said in an Nov. 3 interview. Gregory Lee Johnson, the man whose arrest originally went to the Supreme Court, had even reached out to encourage his fight in the case, Carey said.
“I would like to think that one of the basic tenants of our democracy is that our president cannot make laws and they would not enforce something that he wrote as an executive order,” Carey said.
Motion to dismiss comes amid death threats
While the U.S. Department of Justice has brought charges against Carey, his wife, Leslie Carey, announced her resignation as the chair of the Henderson County Democratic Party on Oct. 23, citing death threats against their family and hardships created by flooding from Tropical Storm Helene.
“(People told me) that they knew where I lived, where my family was, and that they were going to burn our house down with my family in there,” Jay Carey told the Hendersonville Times-News Oct. 28.
The resignation came as his family expects to face increased media attention from the high-profile trial, Jay Carey told the Times-News.
Jay Carey ran for North Carolina’s 11th congressional district in 2022, placing third behind Katie Dean and Jasmine Beach-Ferrara. Jay Carey started a non-partisan veteran advocacy organization and made headlines earlier this year at Congressman Chuck Edwards town hall, where he yelled, “I’m a veteran. You don’t give a f— about me.”
Will Hofmann is the Growth and Development Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Got a tip? Email him at WHofmann@citizentimes.com. Consider supporting this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
