Lee Zeldin attacker ‘did not know who’ the GOP candidate was: Investigators

As per a federal criminal complaint filed Saturday, a man accused of assaulting New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin during a recent campaign rally told authorities he’d been drinking that day and didn’t know who the congressman was.

David Jakubonis, 43, was due to appear in court in Rochester on Saturday to face a charge of attacking a member of Congress with a dangerous weapon. Jakubonis was arraigned on a separate state charge of assault charge in the second degree on Friday and subsequently released, according to a Monroe County sheriff’s official.

Also read: Lee Zeldin, GOP nominee for NY governor, assaulted at rally

According to the federal criminal complaint, Jakubonis, an Iraq War veteran, told investigators he had been drinking whiskey on Thursday and walked onstage during Zeldin’s speech at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Perinton to ask the speaker if he was insulting veterans.

Jakubonis “did not know who the speaker was or that the speaker was a political person,” according to the complaint, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Rochester. The complaint added that when Jakubonis watched video of Thursday evening’s incident he told investigators he “must have checked out.”

Also read: Who is David Jakubonis?

According to video of the attack, Jakubonis raised his arm toward Zeldin as he held a keychain with two sharp points. The congressman from Long Island then grabbed Jakubonis’ wrist and the two tussled to the ground as others jumped in to help. Zeldin suffered a minor scrape.

Lee Zeldin, a Republican, presently serves on two Congressional committees: Financial Services and Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Investigations.

Also read: Who is Lee Zeldin?

Zeldin, once a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who has represented eastern Long Island in Congress since 2015, is a close ally of former President Donald Trump and was one of the Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying the 2020 election results.

Zeldin also won the Republican nomination for governor of New York, which is considered a Democratic stronghold. He is running against Kathy Hochul, who took over as governor in 2021 after Andrew Cuomo quit.