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Overview of Washington D.C. to illustrate note on lawsuit against capitol attackers in January 2021
The lawsuit was filed in the District of Columbia. Photo: Pixabay

Right-wing groups sued for attack on the Capitol

Charges against supporters of former President Donald Trump that caused the Jan. 6 attacks in the United States capital were filed on Dec. 14, 2021. 

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Almost a year after the attacks on the U.S. Capitol by far-right supporters of former President Donald Trump, a lawsuit was finally filed in a federal court in the District of Columbia.

Karl Racine, attorney general of the District of Columbia, was the one who accused Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, the far-right groups behind the assault in which five people died and in more than 140 agents were attacked.

“I am suing the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, the first civil suit by a government entity against the insurgents of January 6. They caused great damage to the District, to our democracy and particularly to the brave men and women of our Metropolitan Police Department,” the prosecutor said through his Twitter account.

According to Racine, the lawsuit seeks to hold these “insurgents” responsible for conspiring to terrorize the District, as well as for planning, promoting and participating in the deadly attack on the Capitol.

"I am seeking compensation in this case and will continue to work to ensure that such an assault never happens again," stressed the prosecutor.

During the announcement of the lawsuit, which seeks criminal and financial penalties for the attack, the representative of the District of Columbia before the House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton, was also present, and shed light on the prosecution's plan to punish the attackers.

You may also be interested: The attack on the Capitol... two centuries ago

Eleanor Holmes Norton, representante a la cámara del distrito de columbia  

“I was able to secure a federal payment of $9.1 million to the District, through an emergency supplemental appropriations bill that was signed into law in July, to compensate D.C. for the direct costs of responding to the attack. It is appropriate that the perpetrators of the attack compensate the city for the other costs they incurred that day, including medical treatment and paid leave, which are beyond the scope of the funds that I was able to secure for the District. From police property damage to medical expenses related to the attack, the perpetrators, including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, must pay D.C.,” stated the representative.

To read the full statement, you can click here.

In the sights of the authorities

Racine seeks to prosecute more than 30 representatives from these groups with charges of "conspiring to terrorize and illegally interfere with the peaceful transition of power in the country," in addition to attacking the representatives of the authority in the place of facts.

It is striking that one of the laws on which the lawsuit is based is a civil rights law from1871, known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Law, which was approved 15 years after the end of the Civil War in United States to protect African-Americans and congressional legislators from violence from white supremacist groups.

The lawsuits against these far-right movements are in addition to the accusations made by the House's Jan. 6 Commission, the entity in charge of investigating the assault on the Capitol, and which recently ruled Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff during the attack, in contempt of the court by "not cooperating with the investigation of the legislative body."

The accusing body made reference to the lack of a call for sanity on Jan. 6 by Trump. After the demonstration turned into an attack and got out of control, the president published a video in which not he did not condemn the attackers, but instead expressed "understanding" and "sympathy for their actions."

“I know your pain. I know they are hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side,” were Trump's words before finally asking the protesters to go home.

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