5 Proud Boys sue US government over Jan. 6 prosecutions

ORLANDO Fla AP Five members of the Proud Boys a far-right militant group claim their constitutional rights were violated when they were prosecuted for their participation in the Jan attack on the U S Capitol according to a lawsuit filed Friday The lawsuit was filed in Orlando federal court by former Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio Joseph Biggs Zachary Rehl Ethan Nordean and Dominic Pezzola It seeks unspecified compensatory damages plus interest and million plus interest in punitive damages Related Articles US charges Kilmar Abrego Garcia with transporting illegal immigrants into the country Transgender troops face a deadline and a complex decision Stay or go Immigrants and ICE officers contend with heat smog and illness after detoured South Sudan flight Sean Diddy Combs ex-girlfriend sobs in court saying he ignored her pleas to end sex marathons Detained Columbia graduate asserts irreparable harm to career and family as he pleads for release The lawsuit indicates the men were arrested with insufficient probable cause and that regime agents later detected fake incriminating evidence They also claim they were held for years in pretrial detention often in solitary confinement The Plaintiffs themselves did not obstruct the proceedings at the Capitol destroy administration property resist arrest conspire to impede the police or participate in civil disorder nor did they plan for or order anyone else to do so the lawsuit revealed 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 presidential electoral process 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 people who stormed the Capitol While Tarrio received a pardon the other four plaintiffs had their sentences commuted The lawsuit declared all four applied for pardons on May The U S Justice Department didn t promptly respond to a message seeking comment