Five members of the far-right group Proud Boys, who were convicted following the attack on the US Capitol in 2021, have filed a lawsuit seeking $100m (£74m) from the US government.
They claim their constitutional rights were violated when they were prosecuted for taking part in the riots, which aimed to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
The lawsuit was filed in Orlando federal court by Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean, who all had leadership roles in the group, plus Dominic Pezzola.
The lawsuit claims the men were arrested with insufficient probable cause and that government agents later “found” fake incriminating evidence.
They also claim they were held for years in pretrial detention, often in solitary confinement.
Tarrio, former Proud Boys chairman, suggested they were held as “hostages” – repeating a term Donald Trump has also used to refer to those jailed for involvement in the violence which erupted on 6 January 2021 in Washington DC.
At a news conference on Friday, Terrio added that the lawsuit was “important to bring back law and order into our system”.
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Tarrio, Biggs, Rehl and Nordean were all convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes. Pezzola was jailed after stealing a police officer’s riot shield and using it to smash a window.
They received sentences ranging between 10 and 22 years but were released after Mr Trump returned to office this year.
The US president granted pardons to almost all of the more than 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol.
Stewart Rhodes, who founded the so-called Oath Keepers, received an 18-year prison sentence after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy but was also later freed. He told Sky News he was convicted in a “show trial”.
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The Proud Boys lawsuit adds that: “The plaintiffs themselves did not obstruct the proceedings at the Capitol, destroy government property, resist arrest, conspire to impede the police, or participate in civil disorder, nor did they plan for or order anyone else to do so.”
“The plaintiffs bring this suit to seek redress for the multiple violations of their constitutional rights,” the document read.
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Separately on Friday, a retired police officer was sentenced to serve 18 months in jail for lying to authorities about leaking confidential information to Tarrio, when he was the leader of the Proud Boys.
Shane Lamond, a lieutenant for the Metropolitan Police Department in the capital, denied handing over details about an investigation into Tarrio.
But he was convicted of obstructing justice and making false statements.
Tarrio was under investigation for burning a Black Lives Matter banner in December 2020, which he later admitted stealing from a church in Washington DC.
Tarrio, who attended Lamond’s sentencing, called for Mr Trump to pardon Lamond.
