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Five members of the Proud Boys accuse law enforcement officials of using underhanded tactics to secure their convictions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Members of the Proud Boys New Hampshire were outside Salem High School before former President Donald Trump's speaking engagment at the New Hampshire Republican State Committee 2023 annual meeting, Jan. 28, 2023, in Salem, N.H. (AP Photo/Reba Saldanha, File)(CN) — Five members of the Proud Boys claim in a new lawsuit that law enforcement officials violated their civil rights during the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in the Middle District Court of Florida, claims FBI agents and Department of Justice officials tampered with evidence, intimidated witnesses and used other underhanded tactics to obtain convictions against the members of the neofascist group.
Newly pardoned by President Donald Trump, the plaintiffs — Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — seek $100 million in damages from the U.S. government.
Four of the plaintiffs, including former leader Tarrio, were convicted in 2023 of seditious conspiracy after a three-month trial that tied the men to a subversive plot to disrupt lawmakers as they certified the 2024 election results.
The fifth defendant, Pezzola, beat the sedition charges but was convicted of a separate conspiracy offense.
The case relied heavily on a nine-page document titled “1776 Returns,” which detailed plans to storm and occupy eight buildings in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 while demanding Trump’s return to the Oval Office.
The document recommended that at least 50 people storm each building, including Senate office buildings and the U.S. Supreme Court, while recommending slogans to chant, including “No Trump, No America.”
The men say in Friday’s suit the document was “planted” in Tarrio’s email inbox while dismissing claims that they planned anything more than “a peaceful act of civil disobedience.” They accuse the FBI of using paid informants to spy on their defense team and claim prosecutors altered purported exculpatory evidence.
Tarrio, who was not present at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because of an arrest in a separate case, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in organizing the plot. The four other men received sentences ranging from 10 to 18 years.
The men say they were held in solitary confinement for lengthy periods while awaiting trial. Biggs and Pezzola allege they were denied access to prescribed medication. Rehl says he was given “diesel therapy,” meaning he was chained up and denied sufficient food in solitary confinement, during his prison term.
The plaintiffs were among more than 1,500 people granted clemency by Trump for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack. Tarrio, who served less than two years of his prison sentence, dined with his mother at Mar-a-Lago in May, where he said he personally thanked the president for his pardon, according to The New York Times.
In a separate case, former D.C. police Lieutenant Shane Lamond was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for tipping off Tarrio about his looming arrest days before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Despite the warning, Tarrio was arrested on charges he burned a Black Lives Matter banner outside a historic Black church.
Lamond apologized to the court at Friday’s sentencing hearing, arguing he was trying to obtain information from Tarrio that could prevent the type of violence that happened on Jan. 6.
“I love MPD, and I love my city,” he said.
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