Proud Boys Convicted in Jan. 6 Attack Sue Government on Claims of ‘Political Persecution'
Five members of the Proud Boys who were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other charges in connection with the violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, sued the government for $100 million on Friday, claiming that federal officials had subjected them to 'political persecution' as 'allies of President Trump.'
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Orlando, Fla., came nearly six months after Mr. Trump offered an expansive grant of clemency to all of the more than 1,500 people who had taken part in the attack. It was another attempt by rioters to flip the script about Jan. 6 and blame the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for engaging in what the complaint called 'a corrupt and politically motivated' prosecution.
Mr. Trump himself, in the years since Jan. 6, has repeatedly sought to rewrite the history of the riot, claiming it was a 'day of love' despite the fact that more than 140 police officers were injured by the mob. Since his return to the White House, he has also claimed that the Biden administration unfairly prosecuted him and many of his allies — even while setting up a special task force inside the Justice Department designed to pursue retributive investigations against his own adversaries.
Much of the lawsuit submitted by the five Proud Boys — Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — sought to re-litigate legal questions that had not gone their way during a lengthy pretrial period and a multiweek trial in Federal District Court in Washington that ended in May 2023 with guilty verdicts against all of them.
The men complained, for instance, about the ways in which they were arrested and then denied bail, accused the F.B.I. of using paid informants to spy on their defense team and claimed that federal agents had altered what they claimed was exculpatory evidence. All of this, the suit said, amounted to the government having deprived them of their constitutional rights.
Over the past several months, there have been a handful of other lawsuits filed by Jan. 6 defendants — or discussed by lawyers representing them — to wrest financial damages from the government over claims of mistreatment or abuse of power.
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