Smashing a Satanic display in Iowa has turned into quite the payday for a former GOP candidate's legal defense

• A former GOP politician ripped apart a Satanic Temple statue in Iowa's capitol.
• He's now facing a criminal charge, but says his "conscience is held captive to the word of God."
• He's raised nearly $80,000 for his legal defense. The maximum fine for his charge is $2,560.

A former Republican candidate says he was filled with religious fury when he drove to Iowa's capitol building and destroyed a Satanic Temple display.

Now he's raised nearly $80,000 to defend himself in court, where he faces a maximum fine of about $2,600 on state charges.

Michael Cassidy was charged in Iowa with fourth-degree criminal mischief, a low-level offense, after he admittedly vandalized a statue of Baphomet in the Iowa State Capitol.

Cassidy, a military veteran who ran for Congress in Mississippi and lost in a landslide to incumbent Michael Guest, told The Sentinel that he smashed the statue last week to "awaken Christians to the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government."

"My conscience is held captive to the word of God, not to bureaucratic decree," Cassidy told the conservative outlet. "And so I acted."

The Satanic Temple doesn't actually believe in Satan

The Satanic Temple installed the display of candles and a shimmering goat head above a red and black wreath containing a pentagram in the capitol building this holiday season. The goat display was permitted under Iowa state law that allows religious displays in government buildings.

The Temple is a nontheistic organization, meaning it doesn't believe in the existence of literal Satan.

Instead, they support the literary idea of Satan modeled on works like the poem "Paradise Lost", challenging religious expression laws in the US — and roiling some conservative Christians.

"The freedom of religion is granted to all Americans under the First Amendment, including Satanists," said a man from the Satanic Temple who helped create the display and gave his name as Mortimer Adremelech in an interview with local outlet WHO13. "Our state motto is 'our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain', and that means a lot to me."

In a statement on Facebook after the statue was destroyed, the Temple vowed to "rebuild."

"As our time at the Capitol concludes, we carry with us a sense of accomplishment and a renewed commitment to advocating for religious pluralism and freedom of speech," the Satanic Temple wrote, linking out to a fundraiser.

Michael Cassidy's fundraiser draws thousands

Cassidy's supporters launched a fundraiser of their own.

The Sentinel (the outlet that interviewed him about the statue's destruction) started up an online fundraiser for his legal fees.

"Help this conservative Christian, a man of courage in an age of cowardice, defend himself in court!" the fundraiser page reads.

The legal defense fund has since taken off, with more than $77,000 raised as of Tuesday morning. The fundraiser was briefly taken down once Cassidy hit his $20,000 goal on Thursday but was put back up soon after and has been raking in cash since.

"His attorneys will challenge the investigation and now anticipate much higher expenses," the fundraiser wrote in an update.

Cassidy's lawyer R. Davis Younts told Business Insider that Cassidy may face an investigation from the Navy that could prove costly.

The fundraiser says leftover money will be donated "at the discretion of Cassidy" to a "nonprofit that helps Christian service members in similar situations."

"Mr. Cassidy will make a decision as to what organization will receive excess funds based on guidance he receives from friends and his pastor," Younts said in a statement to BI. "His commitment is that it will be to an organization that is engaged in representing Christians facing legal challenges related to their faith and religious freedom. Because he is a veteran, I know that issues impacting veterans are important to him."