August 08, 2017 10:52 AM UTC

Gardner Gets Charges Dropped Against Protesters Without Disabilities

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• by: Colorado Pols

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FOX 31:

A judge on Tuesday morning dismissed charges against five protesters who were accused of trespassing in Sen. Cory Gardner’s Denver office…

Gardner requested the charges be dropped and the Denver District Attorney’s Office followed through with the request at a hearing Tuesday morning.

The protesters occupied Gardner’s office at 1125 17th St. and said they wouldn’t leave until they got to talk with the senator about health care.

There appears to be some confusion in news reports about who exactly this group of protesters was. The five protesters whose charges were dropped today are not from the disability-rights group ADAPT, who staged a two-day occupation of Gardner’s Denver offices in June. These are protesters from the group Democratic Socialists of America, who staged a much briefer sit-in in Gardner’s office before successfully speaking with him on the phone. As of this writing, it’s our understanding that the charges against the ADAPT activists have not been dropped. And remember, these were charges requested by Gardner’s staff:

The last remaining disability advocate who was jailed following a more than 48-hour sit-in inside Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner’s office was released early Saturday, and the Denver Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that officials within Gardner’s office were the ones who filed trespassing charges against the protesters. [Pols emphasis]

It appears that Gardner asked for the charges to be dismissed against the DSA protesters in part because of a subpoena issued to Gardner personally to testify in that case. If that’s right, it would mean Gardner is taking this action to shield himself from scrutiny, not to show benevolence to the protesters. That’s particularly true if, as it appears, that Gardner asked for the charges to be dropped against protesters without disabilities while not doing the same for the ADAPT disability-right protesters who staged a much higher-profile occupation.

We’ll be watching to see how this story resolves, but stories of a magnanimous Cory Gardner appear to be premature at best.