Conservative actor and activist Siaka Massaquoi was arrested on his way home from a premiere of a movie critical of males in female sports due to his alleged January 6 involvement.
Massaquoi, who appeared in the comedy Lady Ballers released by conservative media firm The Daily Wire, attended the film premiere in Nashville this week but was “abruptly arrested” when he landed in Los Angeles, according to a fundraiser meant to support his legal defense. Federal law enforcement officials arrested him while he was separated from his pregnant wife.
The fundraiser for Massaquoi, who also serves as vice chairman of the Los Angeles Republican Party, said that the FBI had raided his home after the events of January 6 and that he has been scrutinized at airports ever since without formal charges. “Siaka and his family are God-fearing citizens. They have served their community through various avenues,” the fundraiser said. “Since the FBI raid on his home nearly three years ago, they have feared that this day might come, in which the government would charge him for something he did not do.”
Massaquoi was booked in jail overnight and faces misdemeanor charges for disorderly conduct and parading or demonstrating at the Capitol. “This family has been through so many ups and downs, a circus would be a more appropriate term for the turmoil and unnecessary display of government overreach that they have had to endure,” the fundraiser added.
Davis Younts, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and an attorney based in Pennsylvania, said in remarks provided to The Sentinel that the charges against Massaquoi point toward an undue focus from the FBI those with dissident political beliefs.
“Why are they using all of these resources to conduct a raid of his home? Why arrest him at the airport and hold him overnight?” Younts remarked. “I have federal criminal clients who are permitted to turn themselves in and be released on the same day. No home raids, no arrests. The handling of his misdemeanor case seems targeted and politically motivated.”
Younts also noted the “highly troubling” fact that Massaquoi was arrested on his way home from “a movie premiere released by a conservative news outlet.” The comedy centers on a desperate former high school basketball coach leading a team of men dressed as women to earn prize money in several female sports leagues, thereby mocking the transgender athlete phenomenon.
