Rove Protesters Charged

Goldstone, who has represented political demonstrators for more than 20 years, said it was highly unusual that no arrests were made at the time of the demonstration, which is when police usually act against suspected lawbreakers during protests.

"It's suspicious that the government waited until the first day of school, in effect, to serve them with arrest warrants," Goldstone said. "We suspect there was some political pressure put on the government to prosecute because of it being Karl Rove."

Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said he could not comment on "an ongoing investigation."

McNair said the reason no arrests were made the night of the protest was because campus police and the Secret Service were taken by surprise by the demonstrators' tactics. No D.C. police were on the scene. McNair said the priority was to remove the students and let Rove's car exit the campus.

"Once that happened and the situation was over, there was so much chaos there it would not have been a prudent thing to make arrests there," McNair said. Campus police can make arrests. "When we finally regrouped, we agreed to get video and any kind of witness statements and proceed from there."

McNair said the campus police originally focused on using the campus disciplinary process. Five of the six students were accused of violating the campus code of conduct, and at least some were assigned community service.

"The Secret Service made the decision" to present the evidence to the attorney general's office, McNair said.

Staff writer Marissa Newhall contributed to this report.