Latest news with #seditiousconspiracy
Fox News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Proud Boys members file federal lawsuit over 'illegal' tactics in Jan. 6 prosecutions
Five members of the Proud Boys are suing the U.S. government and certain employees in the FBI and Department of Justice for $100 million over their Jan. 6 prosecutions. Enrique Tarrio, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Dominic Pezzola allege in the lawsuit the FBI and DOJ violated their constitutional rights with their prosecution over what prosecutors said was their planning of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. In a document filed in a Florida federal court and obtained by Fox News Digital, the men claim "egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump, by any and all means necessary, legal, or illegal. "Through the use of evidence tampering, witness intimidation, violations of attorney-client privilege, and placing spies to report on trial strategy, the government got its fondest wish of imprisoning the J6 Defendants, the modern equivalent of placing one's enemies' heads on a spike outside the town wall as a warning to any who would think to challenge the status quo." Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice for comment. Four of the five men were convicted of seditious conspiracy after the attack, and Tarrio faced the harshest punishment — 22 years for planning the attack — of any of the Jan. 6 defendants, according to The Wall Street Journal. Nordean was sentenced to 18 years, Biggs was sentenced to 17 years and Rehl was sentenced to 15 years. Pezzola was found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct Congress and sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of nearly all the defendants after he took office this year, including Tarrio, Rehl, Nordean, Biggs and Pezzola. All the men except Tarrio were at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, according to the Journal. Tarrio had been barred from entering Washington, D.C., because of a previous arrest, The Washington Post reported. "Now that the Plaintiffs are vindicated, free, and able to once again exercise their rights as American citizens, they bring this action against their tormentors for violations of their Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment Rights … as well as the common law tort of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment," the suit adds. Prosecutors said Pezzola was seen on video using a police riot shield to commit the first breach of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6. Prosecutors alleged the men were charged under a "novel theory of criminal conspiracy called the 'tool theory,'" according to the suit. "Despite the legal jiggery-pokery employed by the government to obscure the fact, the Plaintiffs were essentially convicted of 'stochastic terrorism,' a leftist bugbear used to describe rhetoric offensive to them that they claim provokes violent acts." The men also claimed in the lawsuit that the government didn't have probable cause to raid their homes.
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
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. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Five Proud Boys leaders sue Justice Department over Jan. 6 prosecutions
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 $100 million in restitution over claims their constitutional rights were violated, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday in Florida.
