A photo collage of January 6 defendants and victims of government abuse. Four Trump supporters were killed that day after police attacked innocent protesters. Several more took their lives due to government abuse and pressure.

On June 11, 2026, I filed a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in his official capacity. The case is J6ers Were Destroyed By Weaponization v. Blanche, Case No. 1:26-cv-2082 (D.D.C. 2026). I also sent AG Blanche a demand letter the same day asking him to settle — not for money, but for reforms.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an unincorporated association called “J6ers Were Destroyed By Weaponization,” composed of January 6 defendants who were coerced into pleading guilty despite maintaining their innocence. The complaint seeks a writ of mandamus directing the Acting Attorney General to revoke those plea deals.

This particular lawsuit does not seek money. It seeks justice.

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What the Lawsuit Alleges

The complaint identifies four principal coercive tactics the DOJ deployed against J6 defendants to pressure them into plea deals:

Invalid felony charges carrying up to 25 years in prison. The government charged hundreds of J6 defendants under 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2) — an Enron-era evidence-tampering statute — and 18 U.S.C. § 231(a)(3), a civil disorder statute virtually never used against non-violent protesters before or since. Combined, these charges transformed misdemeanor conduct into potential life-altering sentences. The Supreme Court in Fischer v. United States (2024) confirmed the § 1512(c)(2) theory was legally wrong all along.

Pretrial detention as punishment. Defendants were held in the D.C. Jail, a facility the Acting U.S. Marshal found to be in systemic violation of federal detention standards, and which a federal judge found warranted a civil rights investigation. The D.C. Jail was producing an average of one death per month.

Unfair Venue. The government prosecuted virtually all J6 defendants in the District of Columbia, where polling data and a near-100% conviction rate at trial made a fair verdict effectively impossible. Public statements from assigned judges reinforced that conclusion.

Disproportionate sentences. Defendants who exercised their right to trial received sentences far in excess of anything imposed for comparable conduct in American history — sentences the complaint argues violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

The complaint also documents the government’s use of predawn raids: large FBI SWAT teams with weapons drawn arriving at the homes of non-violent defendants with no criminal records, in front of their spouses, children, and neighbors. The purpose was not to apprehend dangerous fugitives. It was to terrorize.

President Trump Said That the Plea Deals Were Coerced by Fear

On June 7, 2026, President Trump was asked by the press whether J6 defendants who pled guilty should be compensated. He answered:

“You know why they pled guilty? Because they told them they were going to jail for 15 years if they didn’t. They pled guilty because they were frightened. The people were destroyed by dirty cops and by weaponization.”

The complaint is built on that premise — and the record proves the President is right. Coerced plea deals are not a new problem. They are a systemic one. The J6 prosecution was the largest in American history, involving prosecutors from all 50 states. It was a unique event, but what it revealed was not unique at all.

The Challenge to Blanche: Settle or Fight?

Along with filing the suit, I sent AG Blanche a letter the same day. The letter puts a simple choice before him.

The DOJ can meet with J6ers and their attorneys and work toward reforms that would benefit all Americans — not just J6ers, but every defendant who has faced a weaponized prosecution. Or it can spend taxpayer money defending the very tactics that President Trump has publicly condemned.

The letter states plainly: “You have a historic opportunity to be President Trump’s agent in emancipating tens of thousands of Americans who have been unfairly targeted by weaponization. But the clock is ticking on President Trump’s term, and the time to act is now.”

This is not a partisan ask. Republicans and Democrats alike have criticized the coercive use of prosecutorial power. The problem did not start with J6 and it will not end there unless the tools used to destroy people’s lives are identified and dismantled.

The Question Before the DOJ

There is a straightforward conflict at the heart of this lawsuit. President Trump has said J6ers were frightened into plea deals. The DOJ, under his direction, now has to decide what to do about it.

Will it meet with J6ers and pursue reforms consistent with what the President himself has described as weaponization? Or will it deploy the same institutional machinery that produced the J6 prosecutions to defend them?

The DOJ cannot have it both ways. Either the President is right — and these plea deals were the product of coercion — or it will stand in federal court and argue he is wrong.

We are ready to meet immediately. The J6ers have been waiting long enough.

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