The DC Attorney General is suing extreme right-wing groups for the January 6 attack

Washington, DC, Attorney General Karl Racine (D) on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against right-wing extremist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers over their role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The 84-page civil complaint, which also shows dozens of individuals, alleges violations of local DC and federal laws, including a law stemming from the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which targets violent conspiracies.

“The images of that shameful and contemptible day can never be erased,” Racine said at a news conference announcing the trial. “It was like 9-11, a planned terrorist attack, but this time our own citizens were hell-bent on destroying the freedoms and ideals on which our country was founded and continue to strive to achieve.”

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Washington, DC, claims unspecified amounts of compensation from defendants for what Racine described as “restitution and compensation” for the damages inflicted in the attack.

“I can guarantee you that as we continue, we will seek the maximum level of financial punishment,” Racine said in response to a question from a journalist.

The complaint follows similar lawsuits filed by a group of U.S. Capitol police officers and another case from the NAACP and Rep. Bennie ThompsonBennie Gordon ThompsonJan. 6 panel votes to keep Meadows in contempt. The Meadows lawyer claims that referring to contempt would be against the law. Meadows said the National Guard would be present on January 6 to ‘protect pro Trump people’, investigators say MORE (Miss D). These lawsuits also drew on the Ku Klux Klan Act, which makes it illegal to use force or threats to prevent federal officers from performing their official duties.

But whereas the former suits named fhv President TrumpDonald TrumpRepublicans worry over Trump’s influence in Missouri Senate race Jan. 6 panel votes to keep Meadows in contempt Senate confirms first Korean-American woman as federal appeals judge MORE and his close allies as defendants, the DC lawyer’s case does not. Instead, it targets the two right-wing extremist groups and dozens of their top members, many of whom face federal criminal charges for their role in disrupting the nation’s peaceful transfer of power during the deadly January 6 uprising.

Racine was joined at Tuesday’s press conference by Joanna Lydgate, who heads the United States Democracy Center, a non-partisan think tank that advocates for suffrage and other democratic institutions.

“This case is about consequences and it’s about prevention,” she said. “And while some would like to act as if we can just move on from the horrors of January 6, it would be irresponsible and dangerous.”

Updated 13:02

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