The Washington, D.C., Attorney General’s Office has moved to dismiss — with prejudice — a civil lawsuit against two far-right extremist groups and several other individuals for their participation in the Jan. 6, attack on the Capitol following “long delays” in the case, telling the court that the government no longer believes the case is worth pursuing.

“The Attorney General has determined that, notwithstanding the virtue and propriety of this case, the District’s limited law enforcement resources must now be committed elsewhere in the service of District residents, taking into account both the growing challenges the District faces and the relatively small recoveries the District stands to obtain on its remaining common law causes of action,” the OAG’s office wrote in the five-page filing explaining its decision to drop the suit against Proud Boys International, LLC and the Oath Keepers.

As Law&Crime previously reported, the civil complaint was initially filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington in December 2021 and sought millions of dollars in damages from the groups.

Proceedings were held up as many of the defendants were among the thousands of people prosecuted and convicted for their involvement in the Capitol riot. Among the most notable defendants were Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, both of whom were convicted of seditious conspiracy.

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Trademark Law

DC church controls Proud Boys trademark as result of judge’s decision

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 4, 2025, 1:59 pm CST

A Washington, D.C., judge has transferred interest in a trademark owned by Proud Boys International, a far-right group, to a church that its members vandalized in December 2020.

The judge’s injunction also banned Proud Boys International from selling or licensing its trademark without court approval or the consent of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, which had sued over the attack.

Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the District of Columbia Superior Court entered the injunction Feb. 3 after the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., sued to enforce a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys.

The New York Times, the Independent, the Guardian and the Hill are among the publications with coverage.

Bosier’s ruling “effectively means that Proud Boys chapters across the country can no longer legally use their own name or the group’s traditional symbols without the permission of the church,” the New York Times reports. “The ruling also clears the way for the church to try to seize any money that the Proud Boys might make by selling merchandise, like hats or T-shirts emblazoned with their name or with any of their familiar logos, including a black and yellow laurel wreath.”

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., had obtained the default judgment in a June 2023 decision by Judge Neal E. Kravitz of the District of Columbia Superior Court. He ruled after the church alleged that the Proud Boys trespassed on church property during a march and destroyed its large Black Lives Matter sign.

The church was represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs; and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

One of the defendants in the lawsuits was Enrique Tarrio, a former Proud Boys leader who had been sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other crimes for helping to plan the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack. Tarrio was not at the Capitol during the attack, however, because he was banned from the city after he was arrested on vandalism charges, the New York Times explains.

Last month, Tarrio received a full pardon of his Capitol attack convictions from President Donald Trump.

Tarrio commented on the trademark injunction in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. He accused the church of engaging “in a campaign of harassment and falsehoods.” The judge’s conduct, he said, “necessitates impeachment and investigation.”

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The mother of the Proud Boys leader who helped orchestrate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol went on television to ask President-elect Donald Trump to pardon her son from his 22-year sentence.

Enrique Tarrio was not in Washington D.C. that day but prosecutors argued he was one of the chief architects of the riot as he was the head of the Proud Boys who led the assault on the Capitol. A jury agreed, convicting him of seditious conspiracy, and a judge handed out the longest sentence of any of the Jan. 6 defendants. Now with Trump set to take office next year, many of the imprisoned rioters are hoping he issues them pardons as he said he would while on the campaign trail.

More from Law&Crime: ‘These assertions defy credulity’: Capitol Police officers using KKK Act to sue Trump over Jan. 6 push to unseal Jack Smith grand jury materials

In an interview with South Florida NBC affiliate WTVJ, Tarrio’s mother Zuny Tarrio spoke directly to Trump.

“President Trump, I think my son and most of those J6, if not all, deserve to be home with their families,” she said. “We’ve suffered long enough.”

She said while the riot was unfortunate, the “government” should have prevented it before it happened.

“I don’t think anyone honestly likes what happened January 6th,” Zuny Tarrio said. “I think the way that it happened, shouldn’t have happened. I think the government could have stopped that in a lot of ways.”

At least five police officers who engaged with the violent mob died after Jan. 6. Dozens more were injured. Zuny Tarrio said when officers took an oath “there’s no guarantees of what happens when you do a job like that.” She also said the idea that her son was a leader of the riot is “far-fetched” because people who weren’t Proud Boys also committed violence.

“Enrique Tarrio wasn’t even there that day. He was not on the [Capitol] grounds,” she said. “He was not in Washington D.C. that day.”

She described the last few years with her son in prison as “horrific.”

A Washington, D.C., police officer worked as a “double agent” ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, once tipping off the head of the Proud Boys about his impending arrest for burning a Black Lives Matter flag, prosecutors reportedly said Monday during opening statements at his trial.

Former D.C. Metro Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond also kept in close contact with Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 riot that interrupted the certification of Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election, prosecutors allege. Lamond is charged with obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements to police about his conversations with Tarrio, who is now serving a 22-year prison sentence for his role in organizing the riot. Lamond is undergoing a bench trial on the charges in front of U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

More from Law&Crime: ‘F—ing kangaroo court’: Proud Boy who stormed Capitol and berated Obama-appointed judge gets reduced sentence

“Lamond leaked sensitive police information to a criminal suspect, and lied about it to investigators,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein told Berman, according to The Washington Post. “The evidence will show that the defendant was a Proud Boys sympathizer. The defendant became a double agent.”

Per the March 2023 indictment, Lamond was the head of MPD’s intelligence branch that monitored upcoming protests and rallies in D.C. when he and Tarrio started communicating regularly using the encrypted messaging app Telegram.

After Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, Lamond allegedly sent a text message to Tarrio that said “Hey brother, sad, sad news today. You guys planning anything?” Lamond also allegedly tipped Tarrio off that law enforcement had been hearing chatter of Proud Boys saying they were “mobilizing” and planning on “taking back the country.” Lamond also allegedly kept Tarrio apprised of cops possibly shutting down a bar that was a Proud Boys hangout.

Add Proud Boys member and Florida man Joseph Biggs — convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to one of the longest prison terms for his role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, to the growing list of felons seeking a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, last year sentenced the 40-year-old Biggs to 17 years behind bars after a jury convicted him of seditious conspiracy, among other charges, in May 2023. Now his camp is hoping the prison sentence will soon end with Trump headed back to the White House.

Biggs’ attorney Norm Pattis, known for representing Alex Jones and Infowars employees, told Orlando Fox affiliate WOFL that he is writing Trump a letter urging him to give his client a pardon. Pattis said releasing Biggs from prison is in the public’s interest.

More from Law&Crime: Armed Jan. 6 rioter who chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up stairs found guilty

“The notion that Mr. Biggs is some sort of domestic terrorist that should sit behind bars for 17 years is a chilling message to everyone,” Pattis told the TV station. “And that is you ought not to write patriotic hyperbole and then attend a protest, because if you do, an ambitious prosecutor is going to turn your words into circumstantial evidence of intent to commit a crime. And that’s just un-American.”

Pattis told the Daytona Beach News-Journal that Biggs is “excited and hopeful about the prospects of a pardon.” As the News-Journal pointed out, Biggs was confident about receiving a pardon even before Trump’s election. He expressed that sentiment in a jailhouse interview with Infowars last year. MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” played a clip of the interview.

Oh, I know he’ll pardon us. I believe that with all my heart. You know, the thing is, is hopefully getting him, you know, for him to be able to get into the position where he can at least be, I think, on the ballot to run right ’cause … but I do believe that Donald J. Trump will pardon us and he should. We didn’t do anything. You know, we’re his supporters. We went there like he asked

Trump has said he would pardon Jan. 6 defendants but has not been specific on who among the roughly 1,500 rioters arrested would receive one. He said on his social media platform that he would pardon “many of them” but not the ones who “got out of control.”

The Pennsylvania Proud Boys member widely seen as the tip of the spear that first broke through a police barrier at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has been convicted of felonies and misdemeanors in connection with the riot but acquitted of trespassing charges.

In a mixed verdict handed down Friday, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb convicted Ryan Samsel and co-defendants James Grant, Paul Johnson, Steven Randolph, and Jason Blythe of civil disorder and assault on police with a dangerous weapon, both felonies, as well as an act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, a misdemeanor, Washington, D.C., CBS affiliate WUSA reported. Samsel, Grant, and Johnson were additionally convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, a 20-year felony, and misdemeanor disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds.

Only Samsel was convicted of additional counts of civil disorder and assaulting police, both with and without a dangerous weapon.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Samsel was accused of facing off against police officers over barriers at the Peace Circle on Jan. 6. During that confrontation, Officer Caroline Edwards was thrown to the ground, hitting her head on a concrete step and suffering a concussion.

That confrontation preceded “hours and hours of hand-to-hand combat,” Edwards said in her June 9 testimony before the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to increase the pending prison sentence for a Florida man who fled ahead of his sentencing hearing for felony convictions stemming from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

As Law&Crime previously reported, Christopher Worrell went missing in August days before he was supposed to report to court in Washington, D.C., for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth. Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, had convicted Worrell in May of seven felonies, including obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, civil disorder, and assaulting officers using a dangerous weapon.

Worrell was finally caught weeks later, in late September — and according to a memo filed by federal prosecutors on Tuesday, he pretended to overdose on drugs in an attempt to further delay facing his fate.

“He apparently had no intention of ever turning himself in,” the DOJ’s supplemental sentencing memorandum says. “Worrell was recaptured, however, when he attempted to covertly return to his residence. Worrell then faked a drug overdose prior to his arrest, and maintained that lie during a five-day hospital stay, wasting the time and money of both medical staff and the Collier County Sheriff’s Office, which provided deputies to watch Worrell 24/7 in a non-secure hospital location and was left to foot the bill for Worrell’s unnecessary medical care.”