EXCLUSIVE: Guy Reffitt and Nine Other Jan. 6 Defendants Sue the U.S. for at Least $1 Million Each

Ten people who were charged over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot have sued the federal government. According to their complaint, eight of them were pardoned by President Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, and the cases against the other two were dismissed. Each is asking for at least $1 million in damages, according to a complaint filed Wednesday, Oct. 21, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and reviewed by The Digital Free Press.

The plaintiffs include Guy Wesley Reffitt of Texas, whose case was the first Jan. 6 prosecution to go to a jury. The other nine plaintiffs are Ronald J. Cloutier of Idaho, Phillip M. Crawford Jr. of Georgia, Bruno J. Cua of Georgia, Frank D. Dahlquist of Montana, Nicholas P. Hendrix of Maine, Joshua D. Knowles of Arizona, Daniel F. Leyden of Indiana, Joseph P. Leyden of Illinois and Matthew L. Stickney of Washington state. The only defendant is the United States of America.

The case is Cloutier et al. v. United States, No. 1:26-cv-03685. It was filed by attorneys Peter Ticktin and Roger Roots of The Ticktin Law Group in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

What the Jan. 6 Defendants' Lawsuit Claims

The 105-page complaint is brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act. That law lets people sue the government for harm caused by federal employees after first filing an administrative claim. The complaint says each plaintiff filed claims with the FBI or other agencies and that more than six months passed without a final decision, or the claims were denied.

The lawsuit lists five counts: malicious prosecution; selective prosecution and abuse of process; negligence involving personal property; intentional infliction of emotional distress; and abuse of process and vindictive prosecution. Besides money damages of "not less than $1,000,000 per Plaintiff," it asks the court to order the plaintiffs' criminal records expunged and to order the government to destroy their DNA, blood samples and other biological identifying information. It also seeks a declaration that the government violated their rights by "damaging, losing, or stealing" their property.

The complaint describes what happened to each plaintiff. In Reffitt's section, it says he was hit with pepper balls "by his count twenty-two times" outside the Capitol and that he cannot see without glasses since then. It says he was held from his arrest on Jan. 16, 2021, through the start of his trial on Feb. 28, 2022, including what the complaint calls more than 227 days in solitary confinement at the District of Columbia jail. A jury convicted Reffitt on all five counts on March 8, 2022. According to the complaint, he was sentenced to 87 months in prison, then resentenced to 80 months in December 2024 after the Supreme Court narrowed the obstruction law in Fischer v. United States. He was pardoned on Jan. 20, 2025. The complaint says his phones and computers were returned damaged and that his DNA and iris scans are still in the government's possession.

These are allegations in a lawsuit. The government has not yet responded in court, and none of the claims has been tested by a judge.

What the Plaintiffs' Lawyer Says

Ticktin told The Digital Free Press in an email on Oct. 23 that the Cloutier case is one of 15 complaints his firm has filed so far on behalf of 160 plaintiffs. He said the firm expects to file more complaints in the next couple of weeks for about 75 more plaintiffs, which would bring the number of active plaintiffs to about 235, and that the firm has 417 Jan. 6 clients in all who are seeking judgments.

Ticktin said the plaintiffs are mainly seeking money damages, but that they also want their conviction records expunged, their DNA samples removed and their names taken off flight-restriction lists.

Ticktin also contended that the events of Jan. 6 were planned in advance and that FBI informants in the crowd were there by design. That is his claim, and The Digital Free Press has not verified it. A December 2024 review by the Justice Department's inspector general found that 26 FBI confidential human sources were in Washington on Jan. 6, but that none of them was authorized by the FBI to enter the Capitol or break the law, and none was directed to encourage others to commit illegal acts. The review also found no evidence that the FBI had undercover employees in the crowds that day.

Part of a Wider Push

This is not the first such case. In August, Indiana Public Radio reported that more than a dozen former Jan. 6 defendants had filed a similar lawsuit in Washington seeking at least $1 million each. That report said the Justice Department had asked a court to dismiss another similar case, arguing that the deadline to sue had passed years ago.

ABC News reported in June that Ticktin has filed administrative claims for about 200 Jan. 6 clients and expects to file about 200 more. ABC also reported that the administration dropped a proposed compensation fund for people it called victims of "weaponization."

Aside from automated court-docket listings, The Digital Free Press found no news coverage of this Oct. 21 lawsuit before publication.

The Digital Free Press reached out to the Justice Department and to Ticktin for comment on Oct. 22. Ticktin replied by email on Oct. 23; no response was received from the Justice Department by publication.

Image: The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington (file photo), by Tony Webster, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

Yossi Schmidt, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, The Digital Free Press

Hold Everyone Accountable.

Sources: Complaint, Cloutier et al. v. United States, No. 1:26-cv-03685 (D.D.C., filed Oct. 21, 2026): https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.297876/gov.uscourts.dcd.297876.1.0.pdf ; Court docket entry (CourtListener): https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/75001987/1/cloutier-v-united-states/ ; Indiana Public Radio (WFIU), Aug. 10, 2026: https://indianapublicradio.org/news/2026/08/indiana-women-pardoned-in-jan-6-sue-feds-for-1m-each/ ; ABC News (June 3, 2026): https://abcnews.com/Politics/reimbursed-jan-6-defendants-eyeing-payouts-despite-scrapped/story?id=133565302 ; U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, report release on the FBI's confidential human sources and Jan. 6 (Dec. 12, 2024): https://oig.justice.gov/news/doj-oig-releases-report-fbis-handling-its-confidential-human-sources-and-intelligence