WASHINGTON, DC – A new report from Cardinal News shows Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares lied about crime data and misused resources in his own office to push his campaign agenda and bolster his message. 

MAGA Miyares has been misleading his constituents on the campaign trail for months. As Elizabeth Beyer reported, “[D]ata provided by Miyares’ own office did not corroborate the attorney general’s claims.” And when pressed about the data, a Miyares spokesperson even admitted not having proof. 

Between presenting false claims on crime with missing and misleading information and using his office’s resources to do so, Virginians can’t trust Jason Miyares to be their attorney general.  

Key highlights:  

• “The Office of the Attorney General released a dataset on Monday which refuted claims made for months by Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares about the danger of inmates released early because of the enhanced earned sentence credit program.”

• The AG’s own office admitted to not having proof of these claims to Cardinal News. “‘The data provided by VADOC does not allow us any deeper insight as to whether these crimes were committed within the period of time where the offender would have taken advantage of early release,’ [Shaun Kenney, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office] said.”

• “Miyares declined to directly redefine his claim that 53 or 70 Virginians have died because of enhanced earned sentence credits, given the new analysis.”

• “‘If they’re saying that 78 deaths are attributable to [enhanced early sentence credits], then that’s clearly wrong and they’re either misinterpreting the data or they can’t understand it,’ said Doug Ramseur, a criminal defense attorney based in Richmond, after reviewing the list provided by Miyares’ office.”

• “Information to support Miyares’ claim was missing…”

• “‘It’s almost impossible to tell how accurate [the attorney general’s claim] is unless you have access to the Department of Corrections records and go through a very painstaking examination of each case to find out whether it had anything to do with early release or not,’ said Don Caldwell, the commonwealth’s attorney in the city of Roanoke, in early October.”

• “Concerns regarding the missing data were brought up repeatedly to the attorney general’s office and the Department of Corrections between September, when the FOIA request was fulfilled, and October. No additional information was provided by either agency until late October.”

• “‘They’re jumping too early to make conclusions on things that they can’t and intentionally coming to the wrong conclusion,’ Ramseur said. ‘If they gave this more time, then maybe they could get better data but what they’re using now doesn’t support what they’re saying.’” 

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