FLORIDA (LifeSiteNews) — A former federal prosecutor who participated in cases against January 6 defendants is being charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault, and armed burglary after allegedly stabbing someone in a fit of road rage following a highway collision.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that according to Florida Highway Patrol (FHP), a Tampa couple traveling south on Interstate 275 pulled over to assist a 35-year-old Tampa motorist who was unconscious in his seat while his vehicle was stopped in the travel lanes. At some point, the driver woke up, accelerated, struck the couple’s sedan, and in trying to get away, struck a car belonging to passing motorist Patrick Douglas Scruggs.
Scruggs pulled over, exited his vehicle to approach the offender’s car, then broke the window and began stabbing the driver with a pocket knife. The couple approached to try to assist the original driver, but Scruggs attacked them as well, and they fled, according to the report. The commotion caught the attention of a passing police officer, who detained Scruggs. The original driver was hospitalized with “serious but not life-threatening” injuries.
The bizarre altercation has drawn national interest due to Scruggs’ background. While currently an attorney for Atlanta law firm Barnes & Thornburg, from September 2012 to April 2023, he worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, for which he represented the federal government against Florida residents charged in connection with their attendance of the January 6, 2021, rally at the U.S. Capitol to protest certification of the 2020 election results.
That event, which devolved into a riot that gave Donald Trump and his MAGA movement a black eye, led to the Biden administration prosecuting numerous individuals for non-violent or ill-defined offenses, with many conservatives expressing concerns about their treatment and disproportionate, politically motivated punishment.
Patrick Scruggs, 38, who worked for the Tampa U.S. Attorney’s Office from 2013 until 2023 and now works for Barnes and Thornburg Law @BTLawNews, stabbed one man in the neck and attempted to stab a couple.
Scruggs was happily snatching up J6 defendants in his jurisdiction. This… https://t.co/OXWyftQ0iJ
— Michael R. Caputo (@MichaelRCaputo) September 27, 2023
READ: Unhinged MSNBC commentator says Trump ‘must die in prison’ over January 6
Specifically, Scruggs argued for release conditions including drug testing and a nightly curfew for January 6 defendant Adam Johnson, who was infamously photographed in the Capitol carrying a lectern pilfered from the U.S. House of Representatives chamber. Scruggs declared at the time that “everyone involved in the storming of the Capitol last week needs to be held accountable for their actions, including Mr. Johnson.”
“In America, every person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Mr. Scruggs is no different than anyone else and should be afforded that same presumption,” said Scruggs’ attorney, John Nohlgren. “He has no prior criminal history and has spent nearly his entire career protecting the people of this country.” Nohlgren stressed that his client was not the one who caused the “chaotic situation,” and “there is much more to this incident than what is being reported and we are diligently working to bring to light the full facts of what occurred. We urge that the public keep an open mind and withhold from making judgments.”