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Jan Carey, 54, of North Carolina, said he was protesting an executive order from President Donald Trump attempting to ban flag burning
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors have filed two misdemeanor counts against a North Carolina veteran who set an American flag on fire outside the White House earlier this week.
Jan Carey, 54, of Arden, is charged with lighting a fire in an undesignated area and lighting a fire in a manner that causes damage to real property or park resources. Both counts are Class “B” misdemeanors, also known as petty misdemeanors, which are the lowest category of federal offense. They carry a maximum sentence of no more than 6 months in prison and are typically resolved in D.C. with a small fine.
In a video capturing the flag burning in Lafayette Park, Carey said he was protesting President Donald Trump’s executive order that directed prosecutors to charge individuals who burn the American flag. Burning the flag has been protected under the First Amendment since the Supreme Court’s landmark 1989 decision in Texas v. Johnson.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
An Army veteran from North Carolina set an American flag ablaze outside the White House Monday evening, hours after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning flag burning.
Flag burning is protected free speech under the First Amendment. The Supreme Court struck down the Flag Protection Act, which outlawed flag burning, in a decision in 1990, saying that it sought to suppress free speech.
But Monday morning, Trump ordered the Department of Justice to charge anyone who burns an American flag with inciting a riot, because he claimed the act “incites riots at levels we’ve never seen before.” He said the penalty should be a mandatory one year in jail.
Jay Carey, a 54-year-old veteran from Arden, North Carolina, took to Lafayette Park in front of the White House on Monday evening to protest the order — by igniting an American flag himself. He was detained around 6:15 p.m. and was arrested minutes after by Secret Service. They turned him over to U.S. Park Police, who have jurisdiction over the park.
In a video of the flag burning and Carey’s arrest, he identifies himself as an over 20-year combat veteran in a short speech before he set fire to the flag.
“I fought for every single one of your rights, to express yourself in however you feel that you may want to express yourself. There’s a First Amendment right to burn the American flag,” Carey said. “… No president can make can make a law, period. No Congress can make a law infringing on First Amendment rights. I’m burning this flag as a protest to that illegal, fascist president that sits in that house.
Park Police said Carey was charged with violating a law prohibiting fire in parks. Carey told WUSA9 he was released with two citations, one for starting a fire without a legal container, and one for starting a fire on park grounds and causing damage, though he said there was no damage from his fire.
Carey said when he saw the news about the executive order, his first thought was, “I need to go burn a flag,” to push back and put it to the test.
“It seems that people just automatically take what he says as gospel and law and that they don’t push back on it,” Carey said. “And then what happens is something like this, that it should be major news for a long time, will get buried in the news cycle and it just goes away. Just one more thing of his 191 executive orders, just one more to add on to the fire, as it were.”
He’s in D.C. with a group of veterans protesting the deployment of National Guard troops on U.S. soil. And they’re not trying to convince Trump it’s wrong — they want to get more people involved in protest.
To other veterans who may not agree with him and his group, he says they should relook at their oath.
“That oath doesn’t expire,” Carey said. “You have a commitment. You have a responsibility to your country to continue to uphold that constitution and ensure that the people that are serving today are upholding that constitution, whether it be your elected official or national guards. So you need to be loud about that. If you are willing to accept this despot, then you are an oath breaker.”
If he is actually charged under the new executive order, Carey said he and his lawyers are ready to take the case to the highest court.
This is not the first protest from Carey. Back in March, he was kicked out of a town hall in Asheville, North Carolina, for yelling at Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.), the Asheville Watchdog reported.
Carey also ran in the Democratic primary to represent North Carolina’s 11th congressional district in the U.S. House and lost the race with 7% of the vote in May 2022. Before that, he also ran for state senator for the North Carolina’s District 48, where he lost with just over 35% of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.
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