Concord, NH -- New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and Colonel Nathan Noyes of the New Hampshire State Police announce the conclusion of the review of the conduct at the September 29, 2021, Governor and Executive Council meeting.

On September 29, 2021, the Governor and Executive Council meeting was held at the Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. Present at both the breakfast meeting and during the break were a large number of protestors who were there in opposition to an item on the meeting agenda concerning accepting federal vaccine aid funds. As was widely reported at the time, the regular meeting of the Governor and Executive Council was canceled before it began. The cancellation was due to the fact that certain state employees left after the breakfast meeting because of concerns about the protest and were therefore unable to answer questions from the Governor and Council concerning items on that day's agenda.

On September 30, 2021, the Attorney General announced that this Office would review what had occurred at the Governor and Council meeting, and in particular, whether any individuals violated any criminal laws.

The Public Integrity Unit of the Attorney General's Office has worked with investigators from the New Hampshire State Police to review the conduct of individuals who were at that meeting. The review has included multiple interviews with witnesses as well as the review of video surveillance and publicly available video footage of the meeting. The review also considered whether any of those present had violated the provisions of RSA 631:4, criminal threatening, RSA 631:4-a, harm or threat to certain government officials, RSA 642:1, obstructing government administration, or RSA 644:2, disorderly conduct.

When evaluating whether to bring criminal charges, the State must determine whether there is (1) probable cause to believe that a crime occurred and (2) sufficient evidence to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. In this case, there is probable cause to believe that certain individuals engaged in conduct which violated RSA 642:1, I, and RSA 644:2.  However, those individuals would have certain constitutional and statutory defenses available to them at trial and based on these defenses, and other evidentiary issues, the State would be unable to sustain its burden of proving these individuals guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.  Accordingly, given the specific facts of this case and the State's inability to prove any potential criminal charges beyond a reasonable doubt, the State will not bring criminal charges against any individual as a result of their conduct on September 29, 2021.  The Attorney General's Office is closing its review and will take no further action on this matter.