Prosecutors say Rand Paul's attacker was angry about a pile of stacked brush

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Federal prosecutors on Friday announced felony charges against Rene Boucher, the man accused of brutally attacking his neighbor, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in November.

Boucher's alleged assault was primarily motivated by anger over Paul stacking a pile of trimmed branches and other brush, officials said. The stack was on Paul's land, but close to Boucher's property line, and when Boucher saw Paul making the stack, he reportedly reached a breaking point. Paul was surprised by the attack because he was wearing sound-canceling headphones, and he suffered five fractured ribs, pleural effusion, and pneumonia linked to his lung injuries.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.