Several participants in the Jan. 6 riot have filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government, seeking millions of dollars in damages over their claims that police used excessive force against the pro-Trump mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
The lawsuit, filed in Florida on Friday, alleges that police “indiscriminately launched explosive munitions, chemical agents, and impact projectiles into a peaceful crowd and physically assaulted members of the crowd” as rioters stormed the Capitol to contest the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory.
Alan Fischer, a Florida man who was associated with the Proud Boys and was identified with help from his modeling photos, is a lead plaintiff in the case alongside two Jan. 6 participants who were never charged: Patrick and Marie Sullivan. Fischer was granted clemency by President Donald Trump along with roughly 1,500 other Capitol riot defendants when Trump started his second term last year, leading to the dismissal of Fischer’s case before it was adjudicated.
The lawsuit includes the names of 35 other people who an attorney said filed written administrative claims more than six months ago under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The list includes a former Boston police K-9 officer who was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison after he called his actions on Jan. 6 “an abomination”; another Proud Boy who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assaulting officers with pepper spray gel after he cut off his monitoring bracelet and went on the lam just before his sentencing; and a man convicted of child molestation this year after, authorities say, he tried to silence a victim with the promise of a payout from the government. That man, Andrew Paul Johnson, was sentenced to life in prison this month.
In all, 46 people could be part of the class action claim for more than $18.4 million, the lawsuit says, and the class could eventually consist “of hundreds or potentially thousands of individuals.”
The Justice Department and an attorney for the plaintiffs did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Politico reported the lawsuit earlier Monday.
The U.S. government has been sued in several cases in connection with Jan. 6 during Trump’s second term.
One of those cases involved the estate of Ashli Babbitt, a Jan. 6 rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer. Babbitt’s family and the conservative group Judicial Watch sued the government for $30 million, claiming a U.S. Capitol Police lieutenant was negligent when he fired his gun at Babbitt. The administration settled with Babbitt’s estate for nearly $5 million, according to a court filing by Judicial Watch, which said the settlement should not be construed as an admission of liability by the government. The Justice Department and Capitol Police had both cleared the lieutenant of wrongdoing in a previous internal investigation.
At the same time, the Justice Department has opposed a lawsuit filed by former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, whose sentence Trump commuted last year. Tarrio sued the government claiming his prosecution was tainted.
The lawsuit filed by Tarrio and other Proud Boys defendants is ongoing, with a judge issuing an order earlier this month requiring Tarrio and his co-plaintiffs to disclose whether any third parties are funding the attorneys who filed the suit.
In a separate case, the Justice Department asked for more time Monday to respond to a motion from Brian Cole, the man charged with planting pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic national committees’ headquarters the day before the riot, to have his charges dropped. His lawyers argue he is covered by Trump’s mass pardon of Capitol riot defendants. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali granted the extension, giving the government until April 10 to file its response.
