Jan. 6 criminals are suing the DOJ
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Federal civil rights lawsuit seeks $100 million for men convicted in
the Capitol attack, then pardoned by President Donald Trump.
June 6, 2025 at 2:06 p.m. EDT
By Ellie Silverman
The Washington Post
Five leaders of the Proud Boys, four of whom were found guilty of
engaging in a seditious conspiracy to keep President Donald Trump in
power on Jan. 6, 2021, want the government to pay them restitution over
claims that their constitutional rights were violated, according to a
federal lawsuit filed Friday in Florida.
The lawsuit follows Trump's decision to pardon virtually all Jan. 6.
defendants in one of his opening acts as president, an extraordinary
attempt to recast the official public narrative about an attack that
halted the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American
history. Its language echoes Trump's own claims that the investigation
into that attack was illegitimate and politically motivated.
Now, the suit could force the Trump administration to defend the
prosecutions, or pay damages at taxpayers' expense to the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence, a decision historians warn
could amount to an endorsement of using violence for political gain.
"A settlement would suggest that the violence of January 6 was entirely justified," said Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George
Washington University. "It would say to the country that these Proud
Boys who were convicted in a court of law, in a fair trial, were
wrongfully prosecuted and victims. It just turns the entire day on its
head."
The lawsuit -- filed by Henry "Enrique" Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph
Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola and seeking $100 million --
claims federal authorities violated the Constitution in an effort "to
punish and oppress political allies of President Donald Trump, by any
and all means necessary, legal, or illegal." It claims the five should
be paid for violations of their constitutional rights ensuring due
process and a speedy trial and barring unreasonable search and seizure,
and that they were subject to malicious prosecution and false
imprisonment.
It resurfaces many of the arguments made by the Proud Boys
unsuccessfully at trial: that Tarrio never read a document shared with
him by a girlfriend calling for a "revolution" akin to 1776 or Russia's
1917 coup; that FBI informants tainted the evidence against the Proud
Boys; and that the government destroyed exculpatory evidence in the
case. The suit says the judge, appointed by Trump in his first term,
was biased in favor of the government.
Tarrio, who was barred from the city on Jan. 6 due to a previous
arrest, was convicted of plotting the attack on the U.S. Capitol and
then watching it unfold from a hotel room in Baltimore.
In his absence that day, prosecutors said Nordean, Biggs and Rehl
stepped into leadership roles. They pushed through police onto Capitol
grounds at the front of the crowd, with Rehl shouting, "Storm the
Capitol!" Pezzola used a police riot shield to break through glass on
the Capitol's West Terrace, enabling what prosecutors have said was the
first breach of the building.
"We made this happen," another Proud Boys leader, who pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and cooperated with the government, told Tarrio in
a text that evening.
"I know," Tarrio replied, adding, "The Winter Palace," a reference to
the Russian Revolution. To the Proud Boys leadership, Tarrio wrote,
"Make no mistake ... We did this."
The suit says the Proud Boys have been "subject to systemic harassment"
by left-wing groups. But it also makes public the addresses, phone
numbers and social security numbers of some of the plaintiffs and their associates.
All five apologized at their sentencings for what happened at the
Capitol, saying they were swept up in the same fervor as other Trump supporters. All were given punishments that, while steep, were far
below federal guidelines.
Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the stiffest penalty of all
Jan. 6 cases. The others received sentences ranging from 10 to 18
years. Only Tarrio received a pardon from Trump, which does not erase
his criminal conviction but stands as a formal "forgiveness" by the
government and restores certain civil rights. The other four received commutations, which meant they were released from prison, but civil
rights like voting and owning a gun were not restored.
Trump and his administration have already signaled a willingness to
ignore past investigative conclusions in a show of support to rioters.
In addition to Trump's sweeping pardons, the U.S. Justice Department on
Friday agreed to pay nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful death case
brought by the family of Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police
in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot as she tried to storm the House
Speaker's Lobby.
The Justice Department previously found insufficient evidence to prove Babbitt's civil rights had been violated, and a Capitol Police
investigation cleared the officer involved. The Justice Department did
not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
The attack, which interrupted Congress's certification of Joe Biden's
election on Jan. 6, 2021, has become one of the most divisive chapters
of recent U.S. history, with many Trump supporters -- and the president
himself -- falsely recasting the violent mob as patriots justifiably
protesting a stolen election. Five people died in or immediately after
the violence, during which more than 140 officers were assaulted.
At the time, the Proud Boys trial was seen as a victory for the Justice Department, which described the attack on the U.S. Capitol as a
historic act of domestic terrorism. In total, 14 members of the Oath
Keepers and the Proud Boys were convicted of seditious conspiracy,
accounting for more people convicted of that offense than for any other criminal event since the Civil War, Matthew M. Graves, then- U.S.
attorney for the District of Columbia, said at the time.
Legal analysts said Trump has helped lay the groundwork for lawsuits
like the one filed Friday, not only by granting pardons to nearly all
of roughly 1,600 Capitol riot defendants, but also by calling the
prosecutions in his pardon proclamation "a grave national injustice
that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four
years."
Under an executive order targeting the "weaponization" of the Justice Department, Trump repeated misleading accusations against the Biden administration while prompting Attorney General Pamela Bondi to launch
a "weaponization working group" to identify, among other things, "the
pursuit of improper investigative tactics and unethical" Capitol riot prosecutions.
Former interim U.S. attorney Ed Martin fired or demoted more than 20 prosecutors in his D.C. office involved in those cases or ones
involving Trump and top aides. Martin, now in a DOJ position overseeing
pardons and leading Bondi's weaponization group, has also conducted his
own review of some riot prosecutions.
Allan J. Lichtman, a history professor at American University, said
settling the lawsuit would send a "horrendous" message to all
Americans. He compared it to white supremacists during the Jim Crow era recasting Confederates who fought in the Civil War as "noble."
"It would send the message that violent insurrections in American
democracy are legitimized, even encouraged. That no matter what the
truth of your grievances are, you're fully justified if you put it in
the name of patriotism, saving America from the communists, the
'socialists and the left wingers, it's okay," Lichtman said. "It would
be a dramatic advance toward rewriting the past in order to control the future."
Congress's audit arm has estimated that the cost of the Jan. 6 attack
to taxpayers was $2.7 billion, including property damage and costs to
improve security along with expenses incurred by the Capitol Police,
the District of Columbia and federal agencies.
CBS News reported last June that Jan. 6 offenders repaid only about
$437,000 of nearly $3 million, or about 15 percent of the money owed in restitution for damage to the Capitol. Trump's pardons erased the
requirement. And the Justice Department recently took the position that
those who paid are entitled to a refund.
Trump administration officials have spoken in favor of paying
taxpayer-funded "reparations" to the rioters. In a Newsmax interview in
March, Trump said he supported the idea of establishing a fund for the
pardoned rioters.
If the government settled the case with the Proud Boys convicted of the
most serious crimes, there could be a cascading effect among the other
Capitol riot defendants, said Randall Eliason, a former federal
prosecutor who teaches law at George Washington University.
"What stops the other 1,600 defendants from lining up behind them?"
Eliason said. "Lawyers will be beating down their doors to file similar claims."
Tarrio and his attorney, Thomas Ranieri, both said they want the
lawsuit to clear the way for others.
"I do hope it creates a crack in the dam," said Ranieri, whose firm
Ranieri & Associates is based in Front Royal, Va.
While standing outside the White House, they said they have not spoken
with the DOJ or any representative of the Trump administration about
the suit. Tarrio, who lives in Miami, ran into Trump at Mar-a-Lago last
month and said on X that the two had "a great conversation."
"He called me and my Mother over while we were at dinner and said he
was sorry for what @JoeBiden did to all J6ers," Tarrio wrote. "He knew
the hardships me and my family faced for 3 long years. He knew how many
times they moved me. And he said he is working on making things right.
I thanked him for giving me my life back. He replied with ... I Love
You guys."
Tarrio said he has not talked to the president since that encounter.
When asked what message he hopes this suit sends to other Jan. 6
defendants, he referenced Trump's words right after being shot at a Pennsylvania rally last year: "Fight, fight, fight," he said.
Aaron Schaffer contributed to this report.
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