A $100 million lawsuit introduced in opposition to the Justice Division by 5 Proud Boys leaders convicted over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault faces steep authorized odds, however its political value may very well be vital.
The Proud Boys declare the federal government violated their constitutional rights in its prosecution of their efforts to cease the certification of the 2020 presidential election, which culminated within the riot.
It locations the Trump administration in a clumsy place: defend the sweeping Jan. 6 prosecution or doubtlessly pay out hundreds of thousands to the right-wing leaders convicted of spearheading the assault.
“I would be shocked if there was any fulsome opposition put forth by the government here,” stated Jon Lewis, a analysis fellow on the Program on Extremism at George Washington College.
The 5 Proud Boys — Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Joe Biggs and Dominic Pezzola — filed the lawsuit Friday in federal court docket in Florida over their “political prosecution,” which they described as an “egregious and systemic abuse” of the authorized system aimed toward Trump’s political allies.
After a months-long trial in 2023, 4 of the lads have been discovered responsible of seditious conspiracy; Pezzola was acquitted of that cost however convicted of different critical felonies. Their sentences have been among the many highest handed down in reference to the riot, with Tarrio’s 22-year jail time period topping all of them.
Trump pardoned Tarrio and commuted the sentences of the opposite males to time served when he returned to the White Home. The president’s proclamation stated the clemency, which included pardons of almost each different Jan. 6 defendant, would “end a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years.”
Three of the Proud Boys’s authorized claims in opposition to the federal government are what’s often called a Bivens declare, which lets people sue federal officers of their particular person capability for financial damages over constitutional rights violations.
Dennis Fan, a former legal professional within the Justice Division’s civil division who’s now a professor at Columbia Regulation College, stated it’s “essentially impossible” to convey a Bivens declare at present.
“At least in the past decade — two decades, maybe even three decades — the Supreme Court has said that Bivens is all but dead,” Fan stated. “So, if this were an ordinary case, you would think of this as, you know, ‘Good luck.’”
However it’s not an bizarre case, he acknowledged, suggesting the Proud Boys doubtless introduced the lawsuit within the hopes that the Trump administration would settle it.
“I think what they’re hoping for is that somebody has a political thumb on the scales and says, ‘Let’s do these guys a favor because it’s politically expedient.’”
It wouldn’t be the primary settlement linked to Jan. 6.
Trump’s Justice Division wrote in court docket filings Friday {that a} settlement settlement was reached within the wrongful dying lawsuit introduced by the household of Ashli Babbitt, the Jan. 6 rioter fatally shot by police through the Capitol assault. The conservative authorized group Judicial Watch, which represented her household, confirmed the federal government would pay the household almost $5 million to settle the swimsuit.
Rupa Bhattacharyya, former director of the Justice Division’s Torts Department-Civil Division, stated Bivens claims are an “uphill climb these days.” That leaves the Proud Boys’s fourth declare: malicious prosecution below the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA).
“If there’s going to be a settlement, it is in all probability going to be on that declare,” she stated.
Bhattacharyya stated settlements in FTCA instances are paid out of a judgment fund made up of appropriated taxpayer cash. Usually, settlements are achieved in instances the place the federal government faces a danger of legal responsibility and might justify utilizing public cash to keep away from going to trial.
Nevertheless, the chance of legal responsibility right here is “really, really low,” she stated.
“I would never have expected a settlement in these circumstances, but I never would have expected a settlement in the Ashli Babbitt case, either,” she stated. “It is very difficult to call what the department is going to do right now.”
Regardless of the Proud Boys’s uphill battle, the lawsuit carries vital political danger for the Trump administration.
Whereas Trump has deemed Jan. 6 a “day of love” and referred to as the rioters “political prisoners” and “hostages,” that political rhetoric is a far cry from cashing them out. A settlement would imply that “taxpayers are funding political violence,” Lewis stated.
It might additionally open the floodgates for different rioters to hunt authorized recourse over their prosecutions.
Trump has pardoned greater than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants and commuted the sentences of 13 extremist group leaders charged within the assault. The Proud Boys leaders are doubtless the “least sympathetic” of these a whole lot of rioters who would possibly sue for damages over their Jan. 6 prosecutions if this lawsuit is profitable, Fan famous.
“If I were somebody at DOJ thinking about settling, I’d be like, ‘If we settle for these guys, then everyone else probably would get money, too,’” he stated.
And, it might embolden extremists and justify future acts of political violence, Lewis stated.
“This sends a message to every far-right extremist out there who, when push comes to shove, will be that much more willing to answer the call to arms next time because they know that they have the Department of Justice on their side,” he stated.
