Justice Department Fights Back Against Proud Boys’ Lawsuit Over Political Prosecution Claims in Capitol Attack

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought forth by members of the Proud Boys who allege that their convictions relating to the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack were due to “political prosecution.”

In a court filing on Monday, the DOJ argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed for several reasons, including the claim’s lack of merit and the government’s immunity against punitive damages. The DOJ’s defense of the prosecutions appears to contradict long-standing claims by Republicans and allies of former President Donald Trump that hundreds of cases targeting participants in the January 6 attack were politically motivated.

Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys, along with Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola filed a lawsuit against the government for $100 million in June. They claimed their prosecutions were an “egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump.”

The lawsuit followed Trump’s pardons and commutations of the sentences for Tarrio and the other four men, issued shortly after his inauguration. The president has also publicly defended pardoning individuals who assaulted police officers on January 6.

In its Monday court filing, the DOJ asserted that the men’s lawsuit should be dismissed as they presented no evidence of law enforcement or prosecutors using knowingly false or fabricated evidence to initiate their prosecution. The DOJ attorneys stated it was unreasonable to believe that the plaintiffs could not provide more specific allegations about such evidence at this stage.

Thomas Ranieri, attorney for the Proud Boys members who filed the lawsuit, told CNN in a statement, “It is not surprising that the DOJ and [FBI agent Nicole] Miller would want to contest this before we have the opportunity to conduct discovery and depositions, as it might become potentially embarrassing for them.”

Miller was a lead agent on the cases against the Proud Boys and is named in the lawsuit. Ranieri added that “this is not the first time (nor is it likely to be the last) that the DOJ and FBI have used underhanded tactics to secure a conviction that was politically expedient.”

The DOJ attorneys also highlighted that a federal court had reviewed the cases against the men during their detention hearings and found “the weight of the evidence is strong.” They provided several specific pieces of evidence, such as photographic proof of Pezzola taking a police officer’s riot shield and using it to break a window into the Capitol, incontrovertible photo evidence of Nordean, Biggs, and Rehl inside the Capitol building, and strong evidence of Tarrio’s involvement in a seditious conspiracy despite his absence from the Capitol on that day.

The court will now determine whether to dismiss the Proud Boys’ lawsuit. CNN has reached out to the Department of Justice and the plaintiffs’ lawyers for comment on the case.