New lawsuit against Proud Boys and Oath Keepers could bankrupt them and unveil their funders
Laura Clawson, Daily Kos Staff
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| Charlestown state Rep. Blake "Flip" Filippi has supported and represented the Oath Keepers but has never spoken against their role in the January 6 insurrection. It is past time for Filippi to cut his ties to the treasonous Far Right. |
Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine
is suing the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers over their roles in
the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, using a statute originally
targeting the Ku Klux Klan.
Racine is seeking “full restitution and recompense” for the District of Columbia’s costs in treating and providing leave for hundreds of injured officers.
“I think the damages are substantial,” he
told The Washington Post. “If it so happens that it bankrupts
or puts these individuals and entities in financial peril, so be it.”
Can’t you just hear the sorrow in his voice at the
prospect?
Racine’s suit includes both Proud Boys International LLC and Oath Keepers, plus dozens of their members, most of whom are already facing federal charges for the crimes they committed on Jan. 6.
It’s not the first such lawsuit: Both Rep. Bennie Thompson—who is the chair of both the House Homeland Security Committee and the select committee investigating the attack—and a group of police officers who personally battled the insurrectionists have filed similar suits.
In addition to seeking financial damages, Racine is
looking for information. “I’m particularly interested in understanding the
financial apparatus of these individuals and entities and where the money came
from,” he told the Post.
The lawsuit, though filed by the D.C. attorney general, comes with added legal firepower, including pro bono outside counsel from the States United Democracy Center, the Anti-Defamation League, and two law firms.
It additionally draws on the voluminous Justice Department investigations and prosecutions of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys for their role in the attack on Congress.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants conspired
“to prevent, interrupt, hinder, and impede, through force, intimidation, and
threat ... United States officials from discharging official duties of their
offices and positions of trust as part of the formal process for counting and
certifying the count of electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election and
declaring a winner of the 2020 presidential election.”
Dozens of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys already face
criminal charges that could lead to significant prison sentences. But finding
out more about the financing of the two hate groups and weakening them
financially or bankrupting them is an important goal to keep them from being
the foot soldiers in the next Republican coup attempt.
