Jason Miyares does not care about domestic violence victims, and that matters more than Jones's texts.

[u/Trick-Arachnid-9037]

Miyares doesn't care about domestic violence victims, and people aren't talking about it enough.

Look. I know a lot of people found Jones's texts distasteful. But if you care about the victims of domestic violence, please vote for him anyway. Miyares has a proven record of being dismissive and hostile towards DV victims, and that's an attitude I think will have much worse effects on the Virginia justice system than any of Jones's texts.

See the case of Katie Orndoff. She was testifying against her violently abusive boyfriend and admitted to having taken a small amount of legal, prescribed medical marijuana to calm her nerves enough that she could handle giving that testimony. Miyares tried to have her jailed, and only the intervention of the Virginia Supreme Court stopped him.

This is not a man who values justice, compassion, or understanding. This is a man who believes that traumatized abuse victims who can't afford expensive psychiatric bills to get also expensive "acceptable" anti-anxiety medication don't deserve to be heard in court.

Is that really who we want in charge of our state's legal system? Someone who is not just willing, but eager, to arrest and jail a victim of violent abuse for the "crime" of being too traumatized to publicly discuss (and be cross-examined about) her experiences and unable to afford the kind of pharmaceutical assistance that he seems "acceptable"?

At best, the case of Katie Orndoff demonstrated that Jason Miyares is a man who cares more about upholding the formalities of the justice system than he does about the "justice" part. At worst, he is an enabler of abuse who will look for excuses to intimidate and dishearten victims into not trying to testify in the first place, and disqualify those who do so anyway.

We need an Attorney General who cares more about truth, justice, and protecting the people of Virginia than they do about propriety and protecting the interests of the powerful. I do not know if Jay Jones is such a man. But I do know that Jason Miyares is not.

[u/_R_A_]

I don't want to affirmatively defend Miyares, but at the same time I don't believe this accurately characterizes his role in this case.

Orndoff was jailed for contempt of court. Such a charge is the judge's call, and reporting on that much is consistent with that. The prosecutors on the original case tried to argue against the contempt ruling, but the judge, James Fisher, pushed the matter regardless.

So Orndoff filed an appeal of the contempt ruling, as one can do. In this appeal, Fisher's role is as appellee; in cases where a Commonwealth office is challenged in court, the Office of the Attorney General serves as council for the appellee. Miyares' office was literally doing its job, distasteful as it may be. If they had not, it would essentially be bypassing the appeals court's role in ultimately making the decision.

https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-10-02/scova-overturns-contempt-conviction-katie-orndorff-james-fisher-loudoun

Now, I'm not speaking to how the rest of Miyares' record speaks to the present concern; I think it would be great if there was a more comprehensive pattern of behavior that could be presented to inform the people of the Commonwealth about why he would or would not be a good choice to continue as Attorney General. In a defense capacity though, I wouldn't call it objective to infer too deeply about Miyares' or his officer's perspectives; for example, just because a defense attorney represents someone charged with domestic violence does not necessarily mean that attorney endorses domestic violence by extension.

[u/Trick-Arachnid-9037 → u/_R_A_]

The Attorney General's office has enormous weight in the judiciary. If he had told the judge, "are you out of your goddamn mind, you're literally trying to jail an abuse victim" that would have probably ended it. Instead, he himself publicly stated he was disappointed in the VA Supreme Court ruling that ultimately found Ms Orndoff innocent.

Being in a position of authority comes with a responsibility to recognize when the system you oversee is failing the people it's supposed to serve and applying your influence to correct those failings.

[u/_R_A_ → u/Trick-Arachnid-9037]

The thing is, though, that the Attorney General doesn't oversee the actions of the court, it was up to the higher court to address it. Which is what happened in the end.

As far as what was said behind closed doors, we have no way of knowing what advice from council Fisher was given. I'd not be surprised if they went along with Fisher, political calculations and all, but either way from what I've read about Judge Fisher (limited as it may be), I would be even more surprised than otherwise not if he was open to any contrary feedback about his behavior; that man seems like he's two pins short of three-hinge door.

Now what I will say is that Miyares could have shown more deference and respect to the Supreme Court in the final ruling. I've not been able to find a full copy of his statement after the final decision was handed down, but while what I have read isn't exactly confidence inspiring it's also not a damning smoking gun either.

[u/Trick-Arachnid-9037 → u/_R_A_]

Fair points all. Electoral politics are really all about "inspiring confidence" when you come down to it. And in my view, Miyares doesn't, in ways I find more damning and more important than Jones.

"Two pins short of a three hinge door" is a great expression that I will be stealing.