The attorney general of Washington, DC, filed a lawsuit against the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and specific members of the groups on Tuesday over their role in promoting, planning and financing the attack against the US Capitol on Jan. 6.
The civil suit filed in DC federal court targets both groups and 81 of their members, including 31 named defendants and 50 John and Jane Does, records show.
“Over the course of several weeks, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, their leadership, and certain of their members and affiliates — motivated by a desire to overturn the legal results of the election and initiate a second term of Donald Trump’s presidency — worked together to plot, publicize, recruit for, and finance their planned attack,” the suit states.
“The result of that planning, the January 6th Attack on the Capitol, was not a protest or a rally. It was a coordinated act of domestic terrorism.”
During a press conference Tuesday to announce the lawsuit, Attorney General Karl Racine said he plans to use a bevy of local and federal laws to target the groups, including the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which gives federal courts the power to go after individuals who violate civil rights.
“January 6 was, to say the least, a brazen, violent, and deadly attack that traumatized this city, this community, and our country,” Racine told reporters.
“While some desperately want to rewrite history and sweep the events of January 6th under the rug, the District of Columbia and its residents have chosen to speak truth through this filing, through this complaint, through this case.”
Racine noted the lawsuit is the first to be filed against the insurrectionists by a government entity and said he is looking forward to uncovering how the groups are financed through discovery.
A number of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are already facing criminal charges for their role in planning and carrying out the attack but the groups are now facing financial repercussions from the suit, which is seeking damages for expenses incurred during the insurrection.
“Our intent, as we indicated, is to hold these violent mobsters and these violent hate groups accountable and to get every penny of damage that we can,” Racine said.
“Let me tell you, if it so happens that we bankrupt them, then that’s a good day when hate is dispatched and eliminated.”