According to a complaint filed Friday, five members of the Proud Boys, a far-right militant group, allege their constitutional rights were violated when they were prosecuted for their role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol.
Former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio, together with Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Ethan Nordean, and Dominic Pezzola, filed the complaint in Orlando federal court.
It demands specific compensatory damages plus 6% interest, as well as punitive damages totaling $100 million plus interest.
The lawsuit claims the men were arrested with insufficient probable cause and that government agents later “found” fake incriminating evidence.
They also claim they were held for years in pretrial detention, often in solitary confinement.
Tarrio, Biggs, Rehl and Nordean were all convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes for their participation in the Capitol riot that sought to stop Congress from certifying former U.S.
President Joe Biden’s win over President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Pezzola was acquitted on the conspiracy charge but convicted of stealing a police officer’s riot shield and using it to smash a window.
After returning to office earlier this year, Trump granted pardons to almost all of the more than 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol.
While Tarrio received a pardon, the other four plaintiffs had their sentences commuted. The lawsuit said all four applied for pardons on May 13.
