Five members of the Proud Boys pardoned by President Donald Trump for orchestrating the Capitol insurrection have turned around and sued the federal government, forcing Trump’s administration into an awkward position.
The lawsuit from members of the neofascist group — all of whom were convicted and given lengthy sentences for the key roles they played in the riot on Jan. 6, 2021 — claims they were the victims of “egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump.”
The complaint, which seeks $100 million in restitution, compares their punishment to “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.”
Their lawsuit effectively leaves Trump’s administration with two politically unappetizing options: Defend the Biden administration’s prosecution after Trump pardoned them and nearly all other Jan. 6 offenders, or force American taxpayers to shell out for a settlement with them.
The plaintiffs include Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, who was convicted of plotting the attack on the Capitol and sentenced to 22 years in prison ― the longest sentence handed down to anyone tried over Jan. 6.
At a press conference Friday, Tarrio called the lawsuit a chance for Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, to rectify the Biden administration’s errors.
“Today, we call on her to honor her commitment to the American people, to right the wrongs of her predecessor and to hold accountable those who violated our rights,” he said. “We trust President Trump’s judgment. He doesn’t make mistakes.”
Three of the other men ― Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs and Zachary Rehl ― were found guilty of spearheading the attack in the absence of Tarrio, who couldn’t enter Washington, D.C., due to a prior arrest. They were sentenced to 18, 17 and 15 years in prison, respectively.
The final Proud Boy in the lawsuit is Dominic Pezzola, who was captured on video using police equipment to break through glass at the entrance of the building. He was given 10 years in prison.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit, which refers to the Proud Boys as a “patriotic activist organization for young men.”
The complaint says the men suffered greatly during their time in detention, where some of them endured “solitary confinement under deplorable and unsanitary conditions” and were denied access to visits from their families and lawyers. Trump referred to them as “hostages” when he signed his executive order pardoning riot participants in January.
The Proud Boys lawsuit comes the same day Shane Lamond, the former leader of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s intelligence division, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for leaking information to Tarrio ahead of the Jan. 6 attack.