Attorney General Miyares, the Whole World is Watching

Photo by Ellen Coyne - October 2021

With the 24/7 news cycle, it can be hard to recall what happened one month ago, or even one hour ago. There is one story that needs to be remembered by everyone attending and affiliated with the University of Virginia: the firing of Tim Heaphy by Attorney General Jason Miyares. As a fourth-year student at the university and a child of two lawyers, I was outraged, and you should be too. 

Tim Heaphy was hired as University Counsel in 2018. Heaphy’s role as University Counsel was assisting staff at the university with legal advice, as well as acting as the legal representative for the university. In August of 2021, Heaphy was hired as counsel for the U.S. House panel investigating the January 6th capitol insurrection. While on leave at his post for the university, Heaphy was fired by newly elected Attorney General Jason Miyares in late January 2022. While a spokeswoman for Miyares denied that his firing had anything to do with his leave of absence from the University of Virginia to work on the House panel, a Virginia deputy attorney general recently resigned after social media posts showed her support of the January 6th rioters by calling them patriots taking down the ‘deep state.’ Miyares, the highest-ranking lawyer in the Commonwealth, has a staff that supported the insurrection on the capitol and is personally playing politics with an individual who was tapped to lead a bipartisan investigation into the insurrection. 

Although it wasn’t front-page news, the firing of Heaphy was a chilling turn of events. I found similarities between Heaphy’s firing and the injustice the Chicago 7 experienced in the courtroom. The ‘Chicago 7,’ was a group of individuals charged with inciting a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. Only two days before the firing, I was sitting with my roommates watching Aaron Sorkin’s Trial of the Chicago 7, reflecting on how unthinkable it was for a judge to get rid of jurors who disagreed with the prosecution. Judge Hoffman, the judge during the trial, not only expelled jurors who would have sided with the Chicago 7 but made explicit judgments about each of the defendants and did not allow key witnesses to testify. The similarities between Attorney General Miyares and Judge Hoffman are obvious. Miyares and Hoffman did not value the unbiased nature of the courtroom. Both men also enjoyed manipulating court proceedings in their favor, in this case, by not allowing the university attorney to be top counsel on a bipartisan committee to investigate the January 6th Insurrection. Both Judge Hoffman and Attorney Miyares tried to shape the outcomes in the justice system to match their political philosophy. 

In a Washington Post article published right after the firing, a spokesperson for the Attorney General claimed that most newly elected Attorney Generals in Virginia appoint lawyers in the Commonwealth that has similar “‘philosophy and legal approach.’” Interestingly enough, Miyares’s spokesperson continued to say, “The Attorney General wants the university counsel to return to giving legal advice based on law, and not the philosophy of a university.” The Attorney General’s office continued to contradict themselves and dug a deeper hole by stating, “Our decision was made after reviewing the legal decisions made over the last couple of years…” while declining to mention the legal decisions she was referencing. The Virginia Attorney General solely wants to make good on his endorsement from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to further politicize the January 6th Committee. 

This story is still having new information released which shows just how unethical the Attorney Generals’ office is in our Commonwealth. On the same day that Heaphy was fired, the special assistant for the Attorney General on investigations emailed a senior staffer in the AG’s office to be on the short-list of replacements for Heaphy. The special assistant said if his most recent investigation “‘...makes the AG look good,’” he would be a good candidate for the open position. The senior staffer in the Attorney General’s office ensured that the special assistant would be ‘kept in mind’ for UVa’s counsel. 

Our job as young people is to keep our eyes open and not allow our new Attorney General to play politics with our members of society fighting for justice. UVa students need to remind Attorney General Miyares that our eyes and ears are open by continuing to talk about his mistakes and not forgetting them when his term is up in 2025. As informed students, it is our job to understand and show outrage over the decision to further politicize the legal system in the Commonwealth. The Attorney General’s actions won’t go unnoticed by the next generation of voters at the University of Virginia. 

Furthermore, keep talking about Heaphy’s firing. The Attorney General might think that his actions went unnoticed, but he doesn’t know that we the people are ready to hold him accountable. The Attorney General needs to be reminded of a common phrase that was relevant during the trial of the Chicago 7, and is now relevant during his senseless firing of the university attorney: 

Attorney General Miyares, “The whole world is watching.”