This isn’t the first lawsuit over the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine is suing the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers for their role in the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The complaint not only calls out the two far-right groups, but also names their top leaders, Enrique Tarrio and Stewart Rhodes, and several other alleged members, who are already facing criminal charges over the violence.
“The images of that shameful and contemptible day can never be erased,” Racine said while announcing the lawsuit. “It was like 9/11, a planned terrorist attack, but this time, our own citizens were hell-bent on destroying the freedoms and ideals on which our country was founded, and continues to aspire to achieve.”
We’ve got more details on this civil complaint as well as the probe into the attack by the House of Representatives probe, which has been focused in recent days on former President Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows.
What does the lawsuit say?
Using a Civil War-era statute designed to go after the Ku Klux Klan, the 84-page complaint accuses the far-right groups and their members of coordinating and conspiring to storm the Capitol. On that day, Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick suffered two strokes and died after he was attacked by a mob. Since then, four more police officers who responded to the scene have died by suicide.
Though it doesn’t specify a specific amount, Racine said he intends to inflict maximum financial damage to the groups involved in the attack to help recover the costs Washington spent on deploying Capitol Police, as well as the resulting medical costs in the aftermath.
“Our intent is to hold these violent mobsters and violent hate groups accountable and to get every penny of damage we can,” Racine said. “If it so happens that we bankrupt them, then that’s a good day.”
Is this the only Jan. 6-related lawsuit?
It’s not the first — and it probably won’t be the last. In fact, two similar suits related to Jan. 6 have been filed already this year, including one by Democratic lawmaker Bennie G. Thompson and another by a group of Capitol police officers. But Washington’s lawsuit does mark the first civil lawsuit over the insurrection by a government entity.
How’s Congress dealing with the fallout?
In June, the House voted to create a select committee to investigate the insurrection, and former President Trump’s one-time right-hand man, Mark Meadows, has now become front and center of the probe. After committee members voted in favor of criminal charges against him, he falsely claimed that he acted quickly to quell the brewing violence.
But the trove of documents he turned over to investigators says otherwise. At the time, Meadows was fielding desperate messages from Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News hosts urging him to convince Trump to stop the insurrection. The Biden White House has called these revelations, specifically the texts between Fox News pundits and Meadows, “disappointing” because those parties didn’t express their concerns to the public.
The documents from Meadows have continued to prove to be revealing when it comes to others involved. House investigators are now expected to identify the Republican lawmakers who were named in the thousands of texts and emails that Meadows turned over, so it doesn’t look like the former chief of staff will be out of the hot seat anytime soon.
