Nearly two weeks after a woman was tackled and punched by a group of men at a rally for President Donald Trump, no charges have been filed against her attackers, according to a report published Saturday by The New York Times. One commentator said the lack of accountability is a prime example of the "selective good ole boy justice" that has been allowed to flourish under Trump.

As the Times' report detailed, 29-year-old Blake Miley attended Trump's Oct. 12 midterm rally in Youngstown wearing a shirt calling for the release of the Epstein files. At one point, she stood up and repeatedly called the president a "fascist." In response, Miley "was tackled, held down and punched by male rally-goers as the president mocked her from the stage, calling her 'scum,' 'low-class,' and 'a fat guy.'" Trump, who misgendered Miley multiple times, also suggested from the stage that her parents were supporters of his.

According to the report, Miley attended the rally alone and had intentionally seated herself among people who seemed older, hoping it would keep her safe. "But as soon as she started yelling, a man grabbed for her neck and then shoved her backward, video of the episode shows," the Times wrote. "When she stood back up, another man appeared to pull her to the ground, put her in a headlock, yank her hair and punch her in the face. She remembers being hit twice, unable to get up until Mahoning County sheriff's deputies intervened about 30 seconds into the brawl."

The deputies escorted Miley out of the arena, while the men who attacked her were left alone. "One raised his fists and high-fived those around him," the report noted. In the arena's parking lot, Miley was shaking so severely that onlookers called an ambulance for her. She said she spent a few hours at the hospital, was discharged, and drove in a daze to her mobile home north of Columbus. There, she threw her Epstein shirt in her closet and collapsed onto her bed.

As of the report's publication, no charges had been filed against the men who attacked Miley. As videos of the incident began to circulate, the local sheriff's office was "flooded with angry calls" from people demanding that something be done. In spite of the criticism, Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene, a Republican who changed parties to become a Republican in 2023, insists that steps are being taken in the case.

"Sheriff Greene, who had changed parties to become a Republican in 2023, said that he is, in fact, doing something," the Times detailed. "He reviewed body camera footage, which he said shows that his deputies were pushing through the crowd to reach Ms. Miley and did not witness the punch. He has identified three men who he said took part in the assault, including a New Jersey resident who said in a now-deleted Facebook post that he and two friends had 'subdued her and threw her to the concrete.' Investigators believe the other two men, including the one who threw the punch, are local... The sheriff said that all three would be interviewed in coming days. He is waiting for medical records from Ms. Miley's trip to the emergency room, he added, to determine whether her injuries were severe enough to warrant felony charges instead of misdemeanors."

Where the case goes from here hinges on the two tracks Greene laid out: the interviews he has scheduled with the three identified men in the coming days, and the medical records he is still awaiting. The distinction at stake is more than procedural — felony charges carry the potential for substantially harsher penalties than misdemeanors — so how Miley's injuries are documented could shape the legal exposure the three men ultimately face.

Reacting to the report on BlueSky, Soraya Nadia McDonald, a writer and cultural critic formerly of The Washington Post, argued that this sort of response to MAGA-affiliated violence comes directly from the Jim Crow playbook.

"I need people to understand this selective good ole boy justice — the kind that protects abusers, rewards impunity, and openly flouts rule of law and equal protection under it — is Jim Crow s——, practically speaking," McDonald wrote. "It's how Jim Crow terrorism FLOURISHED. Trump broadened the acceptable targets."