This civil action aims to discourage future acts of violence and to compensate the victims, including police officers who kept the building on January 6th.
Le Monde
The city of Washington complained of Tuesday, December 14 against far-right groups, proud boys and the Oath Keepers, and against thirty leaders, accused of “planned, promoted and participated” at the ‘Assault of the Capitol on January 6th. Most individuals cited in the complaint are already the subject of criminal prosecution before the federal justice and could be judged in the spring.
After a speech by President Donald Trump evoking without evidence “massive electoral fraud”, hundreds of his supporters had threw herself from the headquarters of the Congress, at the moment when the elected officials certified the victory of the Democrat Joe Biden to the presidential election.
The civil complaint aims to “discourage future acts of violence” and to compensate the victims, including police officers, “said a press conference, the Attorney General of the US Capital, Karl root. He said he hope to “inflict the highest possible financial punishment” to these two extremist organizations: “If we could bankrupt them, it would be a great day …”
More than 25 million victims of Charlottesville
This civilian complaint process relies on a law enacted in 1871 to protect the rights of blacks after abolition, in 1865, slavery, including against extremist groups such as Ku Klux Klan.
In the 1980s and 1990s, complaints lodged in this framework by anti-cell activists led to kneeling several extremist organizations forced to give their property to pay the compensation fixed by justice.
In November, figures and organizations of the American far right were condemned in this way to pay more than $ 25 million to victims of a demonstration that they had organized in 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and who had fired at the drama.
A first for a local government
In February, the elected Democratic of the Bennie Thompson Congress had already filed a civilian complaint against Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, as well as against the former President Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani for their role in the ‘attack of January 6 against the headquarters of the Congress. But “This is the first time that a local government” tries to get reparation, said Karl root. “It’s about withdrawing his means to hatred,” he launched.
According to his complaint, “the attack on January 6 was a coordinated act of internal terrorism” and the city of Washington then ended again “to manage the consequences” of this coup de force: it has particularly caused important medical expenses for police officers in the city wounded in the clashes.