Capitol attack a ‘coordinated act of terrorism’, says DC lawsuit against far-right groups – live

The DC lawsuit adds: “In the weeks leading up to the 2020 Presidential Election, the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, their leadership, and certain members and affiliates of both groups openly advertised their willingness to use violence to support their political agenda, including their efforts to reelect then-President Trump.

It also reminds us of Donald Trump‘s instruction from the debate podium in the fall of 2020, during the peak final months of the election campaign, that the Proud Boys should “stand by” and notes that: “During and following the debate, the Proud Boys leadership immediately took to the social media application Parler to show support for a violent response following President Trump’s statement.”

The Oath Keepers group, the lawsuit notes sought to preserve Trump’s power after he lost the White House by saying: “All he has to do is call us up. We WILL answer the call” and the DC attorney general’s office pointing out that: “Based on past behavior, Oath Keepers members were willing to uphold that pledge using violence” and part of a plan of action should Joe Biden win the 2020 election would be “looking down the sights of a rifle at our fellow Americans.”

“Oath Keepers publicly trumpeted the idea that members were standing ready to engage in a civil war, tweeting from the group’s account: ‘We ARE on the verge of a HOT civil war. Like in 1859. That’s where we are’,” the lawsuit states.

Karl Racine, the attorney general of the District of Columbia, in filing federal suit against the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, states that: “The District seeks compensatory, statutory and punitive relief and, by filing this action, intends to make clear that it will not countenance the use of violence against the District, including its police officers.

The lawsuit filed in federal court moments ago lists as defendants not only the far right, white nationalist groups the Proud Boys (of Aubrey, Texas, per the suit) and Oathkeepers (of Las Vegas, Nevada), but also lists 32 individuals deemed to have associations to those groups, as well as noting there are 50 other unnamed defendants collectively referred to as “John and Jane Does 1 – 50”.

Individuals include Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, a Proud Boys leader who is currently in jail in Washington, DC, for stealing a Black Lives Matter flag from a historic Black church in the city, after violently protesting against racial justice demonstrations. he was arrested on January 4 on his way to DC.

The list also includes some individuals, such as Ryan Ashlock and William Chrestman, both of Kansas, who were indicted by a grand jury in February over the Capitol attack and cited by the Department of Justice as being members of the self-declared “western chauvinist” Proud Boys organization that has been declared a dangerous hate group by the federal authorities.

Today’s lawsuit from DC accuses all of the defendants of conspiracy to terrorize “by planning, promoting and participating in the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol…with the express purpose of preventing members of Congress and then Vice President Michael Pence from discharging their official constitutional duties and declaring Joseph Biden the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election.”

Over the course of a near-hour-long business meeting, the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection outlined in detail the materials Mark Meadows had turned over to the panel – and how Meadows then promptly refused to testify about those very records.

Meadows turned over about 9,000 documents as part of a cooperation deal, the House select committee said, in his effort to engage with the inquiry to a degree in order to avoid an immediate criminal referral that befell other Trump administration aides who defied subpoenas.

Among the materials Meadows turned over to the select committee was a PowerPoint presentation titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference and Options for 6 JAN”, which recommended Donald Trump declare a national security emergency to unilaterally return himself to office.

But his cooperation with the select committee ended with the document production and Meadows informed the panel last week that he would not answer questions because he had learned that House investigators had subpoenaed call detail records for his personal phone.

The select committee said Meadows’ refusal to testify constituted noncompliance with his subpoena, which was first issued in September, and initiated proceedings to recommend that the House hold him in contempt of Congress.

Bennie Thompson, the chair of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, said in an opening statement before the panel recommended Mark Meadows‘ referral to the justice department that Donald Trump‘s former White House chief of staff displayed willful noncompliance in his defiance of his subpoena.

“It comes down to this,” Thompson said. “Mr Meadows started by doing the right thing: cooperating. He handed over records that he didn’t try to shield behind some excuse. But in an investigation like ours, that’s just a first step.

“When the records raise questions – as these most certainly do – you have to come in and answer those questions. And when it was time for him to follow the law, come in, and testify on those questions, he changed his mind and told us to pound sand. He didn’t even show up.”

The select committee said in the contempt report they were seeking charges against Meadows after he attempted to obstruct the investigation in myriad ways, from refusing to testify to frustrating their efforts to locate and discover documents relevant to the Capitol attack.

The select committee also said Meadows should be prosecuted since he refused to testify even about information he voluntarily provided to the panel through his own document production and conceded were not covered by claims of executive privilege advanced by Trump.