{"id":18249,"date":"2026-01-26T22:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/man-arrested-for-assaulting-congressman-at-sundance-film-festival\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T22:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:20:17","slug":"man-arrested-for-assaulting-congressman-at-sundance-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/man-arrested-for-assaulting-congressman-at-sundance-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested for assaulting congressman at Sundance Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\">\n<div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/author\/lindsey-bahr\">             <picture data-crop=\"60x60\"><source type=\"image\/webp\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><source width=\"60\" height=\"60\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"60\" height=\"60\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/d6f34fa\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2320x2320+0+0\/resize\/60x60!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F47%2F87%2Fcc7ab3474edead6e72aba8d3bf50%2Fheadshot-lindsey-bahr.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/a><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>                                <bsp-timestamp data-timestamp=\"1769390091000\" data-recent-thresholdinhours=\"1\">                    <template data-date-tpl>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]<\/template>                    <span data-date><\/span>                <\/bsp-timestamp>            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                                    <bsp-page-actions>                            <\/bsp-page-actions>                                                            <\/div>\n<div>\n<p>PARK CITY, Utah (AP) &mdash; A man was arrested Friday night at a party during the <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/sundance-film-festival\">Sundance Film Festival<\/a><\/span>  in Park City, Utah, for allegedly assaulting a Florida congressman.<\/p>\n<p><span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/2022-midterm-elections-gun-violence-ron-desantis-congress-e17e1a1111d450a5e8a9b5e198880bf8\">Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost<\/a><\/span>  wrote on X on Saturday that he was punched in the face by a man who told Frost that President Donald Trump was going to deport him. The altercation occurred at a private party hosted by talent agency CAA at the High West Distillery, a popular venue for festival-adjacent events. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off,&rdquo; Frost wrote. &ldquo;The individual was arrested and I am okay.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Frost, the first Gen Z member of Congress, thanked the venue security and the Park City Police Department for their help. A Park City Police Department representative said officers arrived on the scene just after midnight.<\/p>\n<p>Christian Joel Young, 28, was arrested on charges of aggravated burglary, assaulting an elected official and assault and transported to Summit County Jail, according to court records. <\/p>\n<p>Young appeared to have crashed the party by jumping a fence and had a Sundance Film Festival pass that was not issued in his name, according to the police affidavit.<\/p>\n<p>It was unclear if Young had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. The Associated Press left messages with the Summit County Sheriff&rsquo;s office and Utah courts in an attempt to request comment from Young or a lawyer.<\/p>\n<div data-module-tracksubscribe data-gtm-topic=\"No Value\" data-align-center>\n<p>Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029Va7Tv2j59PwNEyqGCi1y\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">            <span>Follow on<\/span>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dims.apnews.com\/dims4\/default\/f50b139\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/131x31+0+0\/resize\/131x31!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.apnews.com%2F8c%2Fe0%2F2615e5984b5ebb8b89fd3ade6941%2Fwhatsapp-logo.png\" alt=\"WhatsApp\">        <\/a>    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Sundance Film Festival representatives released a statement saying that they &ldquo;strongly condemn&rdquo; the incident, noting that while it occurred at a non-affiliated event that the behavior is &ldquo;against our values of upholding a welcoming and inspiring environment for all our attendees.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The safety and security of our festival attendees is always our chief concern, and our thoughts are with Congressman Frost and his continued well-being,&rdquo; the statement read. &ldquo;We encourage anyone with additional information on this matter to contact the Park City Police Department.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>County Judge Richard Mrazik ordered Young held without bail, on the grounds that he would constitute, &ldquo;a substantial danger to any other individual or to the community, or is likely to flee the jurisdiction of the court if released on bail.&rdquo; Young has a prior misdemeanor conviction, according to court records.<\/p>\n<p>Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, denounced the alleged attack and said he won&rsquo;t let <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/shooting-minneapolis-protests-ice-immigration-0af10ec433181aa9300deea26d1cc8c5\">tensions over immigration enforcement<\/a><\/span>  in places like Minneapolis spill into Utah.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Political or racially charged violence of any kind is unacceptable in Utah,&rdquo; Cox said in a statement. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m grateful to local law enforcement for swiftly apprehending the assailant and pursuing justice for Rep. Maxwell Frost.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Federal immigration enforcement efforts are &ldquo;welcome and necessary,&rdquo; he added.<\/p>\n<p><span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/hakeem-jeffries\">House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries<\/a><\/span>  wrote on X that he was horrified by what had happened and that &ldquo;the perpetrator must be aggressively prosecuted.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Hate and political violence has no place in our country,&rdquo; Jeffries continued.<\/p>\n<p>Messages seeking comment were left for representatives for CAA. <\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Associated Press writer Hannah Schoenbaum contributed.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: <span><a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/sundance-film-festival\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/sundance-film-festival<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sundance-film-festival-congressman-assault-ff98382c02bdecdbf5c28ac0b677ac6a\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] PARK CITY, Utah (AP) &mdash; A man was arrested Friday night at a party during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, for allegedly assaulting a Florida congressman. Democratic U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost wrote on X on Saturday that he was punched in the face by a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trump"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}