A Missouri judge issued an arrest warrant for three-time presidential candidate Jill Stein after she and her attorney failed to show up for a scheduled court hearing on charges stemming from a 2024 anti-Israel protest.
St. Louis Associate Circuit Judge Karma Johnson confirmed that neither Stein nor her lawyer appeared at the Monday hearing and ordered the warrant, the New York Post reported. The 76-year-old Green Party nominee, who ran for president in 2012, 2016, and 2024, faces one count of first-degree trespassing and one count of fourth-degree assault, both misdemeanors, connected to a confrontation with police at Washington University in St. Louis on April 27, 2024.
Stein's representatives did not respond to a request for comment. No public explanation has been offered for the no-show.
The charges trace back to a protest that spilled onto Washington University's Danforth Campus that April night. Demonstrators marched to the campus, erected tents inside the John M. Olin Library, and were warned by law enforcement that they would be arrested for trespassing. Protesters locked arms and yelled "hold the line" as officers moved in.
Stein allegedly grabbed an approaching officer's bicycle during the confrontation. The bicycle struck Officer Moore in the forearm. Stein then allegedly kicked Officer Moore multiple times in the right leg near his groin while he held the bike in the air. Moore was later diagnosed with a forearm strain, a contusion on the back of his right leg, and a groin injury, three separate injuries from a single encounter with a then-presidential candidate.
Stein, her campaign manager Jason Call, Call's deputy Kelly Merrill-Caye, and dozens of other protesters were arrested that night. Stein posted footage to her X account showing police detaining and escorting her from the scene.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Melissa Price Smith filed the charges against Stein and addressed the political dimension head-on in a statement issued after the filing. Smith said:
"I want to make it clear that these misdemeanor criminal charges are not a statement about the freedoms of speech or assembly, which we honor and uphold as part of our Constitution. They are not a statement about the subject of the protest, which was the situation in Gaza. These charges merely reflect our professional judgment that we have the evidence to prove these particular criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt."
That framing matters. Smith drew a clear line between protected speech and alleged criminal conduct, a distinction that apparently did not persuade Stein or her legal team to bother showing up in court.
Stein is no fringe figure. She ran as the Green Party's presidential nominee three times. Her strongest showing came in 2016, when she pulled more than 1.4 million votes, 1.07% of the national total. Democrats blamed her that cycle for siphoning votes from Hillary Clinton in key swing states, a grievance that followed Stein through her 2024 campaign.
Now the woman who spent years positioning herself as a champion of protest movements and civil liberties faces a warrant for failing to answer misdemeanor charges that arose from one of those very protests. The charges are not heavy. First-degree trespassing and fourth-degree assault are both misdemeanor offenses under Missouri law. Showing up to court and mounting a defense was the lowest possible bar.
She did not clear it.
Several questions remain unanswered. Neither Stein's attorney, whose name has not been made public, nor her representatives have explained why both defendant and counsel failed to appear. It is unclear whether the hearing was a trial date, a preliminary proceeding, or another scheduled event. The charging documents, obtained by local outlet First4Alert, detail the physical confrontation but do not appear to have been accompanied by any public defense from Stein's camp.
Stein built a political brand on holding the powerful accountable and demanding that institutions answer to the people. When an institution, in this case, a Missouri courtroom, asked her to answer for her own conduct, she went silent. The prosecutor took pains to separate the charges from any political motive. The judge followed procedure. The officer documented his injuries.
Accountability is not optional because you once ran for president. If Stein believes the charges are baseless, a courtroom is exactly where she should want to be.
