Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney has decided not to press criminal charges against Timothy Bodnar over an alleged assault that occurred at an Augusta Board of Education meeting in June.

While giving public comment, Bodnar, the St. Albans resident who also goes by the nickname “Truth Slinger” online, allegedly held his arm out and pushed a school department employee as she approached the podium where he was playing an A.I.-generated song from his phone.

Bodner is a conservative podcaster, activist and influencer with thousands of followers across platforms like X and Facebook. He has been a prominent and confrontational figure at rallies supporting the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and has attended school board meetings around the state in support of a number of issues, including President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender girls from participating on girls’ sports teams.

Maloney said multiple prosecutors reviewed the case before the decision was made to not press assault charges.

“In general, we file a complaint when the elements of a crime can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and there are no applicable defenses,” Maloney said.

The Augusta School Department is also suing Bodnar, alleging that he assaulted the employee, and is seeking damages of up to $500. The school department also has a yearlong trespass order against Bodnar, barring him from school premises and attending meetings in person.

Despite the district attorney’s choice to drop the assault charges, Augusta Superintendent Mike Tracy said he has no intention of dropping the trespass order and would drop the lawsuit only if Bodnar improves his behavior over the next 10 months while the trespass order is in effect.

“I haven’t been able to get a commitment out of him to … improve his public discourse. He’s had a proven history of being threatening and quasi-dangerous behavior, so there’s nothing that’s reassuring me from him to be able to drop that charge,” Tracy said about the trespass order.

Bodnar did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, in an email to Tracy, Bodnar demanded he drop the lawsuit and the trespass order following the district attorney’s decision.

“If you all would have sane speech rules there would be no need for theatrics,” Bodnar wrote in an email to Tracy. “YOU (the board) caused all of this and now use it to further deprive me of my rights.”