On his first day in office, President Donald Trump issued a blanket pardon to more than 1,500 people charged in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection. But it still wasn’t enough. Now, five Proud Boys leaders are suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) over their prosecutions and asking the government to pay millions in compensation.
The lawsuit, filed by Dominic Pezzola, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, and Zachary Rehl, demands $100 million in restitution, despite the fact that the latter four were found guilty of engaging in a seditious 2021 conspiracy to keep Trump in power.
Two years after the riot, Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs and Rehl were found guilty of plotting to oppose Congress’ election certification by force. Pezzola was the only one who was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but was still found guilty of assaulting police, stealing a riot shield, smashing a window breached by rioters, conspiring to impede lawmakers and police, and more.
The five men filed the lawsuit Friday in Florida, putting the ball in Trump’s court to either defend the prosecutions or leave taxpayers to foot an exorbitant bill. The Proud Boys is a far-right militant organization that promotes political violence and embraces misogynistic, xenophobic, and anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies.
If the DOJ decides to pay the Proud Boys members, many Democrats worry that it could symbolize the president’s willingness to outwardly sanction political violence and empower extremists.
In the pardon proclamation announced on Jan. 20, Trump noted that the controversial mercy “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.”
Prior to the pardons, Tarrio, Nordean, Biggs, Rehl, and Pezzola were each sentenced to 22, 18, 17, 15, and 10 years in prison, respectively.
The Proud Boys members claim there was an “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.”
“A settlement would suggest that the violence of January 6 was entirely justified,” Matthew Dallek, a political historian at The George Washington University, told The Washington Post. “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 insurrection interrupted Congress’ attempt to certify former President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election. After a mob stormed the Capitol, five people died in or immediately after the violence and 140 officers were assaulted.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
