Quote:On Monday, social media "influencer" and vocal Trump supporter Brandon Straka proclaimed victory in a January 6th-related civil case filed against him by several Capitol Police officers. Straka released this statement on X/Twitter:

In the video embedded in his X/Twitter statement, Mr. Straka describes how the original dismissal left a legal window open for the plaintiffs to refile some of their claims. Mr. Straka's attorney sent a message, shown in the video, warning them against the notion. The plaintiff's counsel replied with agreement, thus ending the case. Today's announcement was not, then, a court victory as much as an admission from the plaintiffs, following the earlier dismissal, that they were not going to pursue the actions any further.

In the video, Mr. Straka describes how one of the plaintiffs wasn't even in the District of Columbia when the events described in the case occurred, being instead in his home in Annapolis, Maryland. In the statement, Straka describes what appears to be "lawfare" conducted against him in the case.

Knowing that I committed no violence on J6, and didn’t encourage anybody else to either, this lawsuit alleged that I “violently” breached the barricades of the Capitol and proceeding to attack police officers- including the plaintiffs. The case entered discovery, where we gathered evidence that conclusively showed that none of these officers were even on the side of the building I was on during my brief time on Capitol grounds. One of the plaintiffs was in Maryland at the time I was there. This case cost me well into six figures to defend, and hundreds and hundreds of hours of my time — which is, of course, the whole point.

Advertisement
Thus endeth the case. Note that this is a civil case brought by several Capitol Police officers, not the criminal charges that resulted in Brandon Straka's arrest and indictment.

Mr. Straka was arrested in January of 2021 in Omaha on charges of "impeding a law enforcement officer during civil disorder, knowingly entering and remaining on restricted grounds without lawful authority and/or engaging in disorderly conduct within proximity to a restricted building to impede official functions and engaging in disorderly conduct with intent to disturb a hearing before Congress." He pled guilty to disorderly conduct in October of that year and was sentenced to three years of probation in addition to three months of home detention, a $5,000 fine and $500 restitution. You can view the records of that case here. Straka resumed holding political rallies in 2022 and has been a vocal supporter of J6 detainees as well as former President Donald Trump since.

Brandon Straka, J6 involvement aside, is best known as the co-founder of the "WalkAway" campaign. A self-described "former liberal Democrat," Straka, in a 2018 interview, described his political evolution:

“Once upon a time, I was a liberal,” Straka says in the six-minute video, looking directly toward the camera. “For years now, I have watched as the left has devolved into intolerant, inflexible, illogical, hateful, misguided, ill-informed, un-American, hypocritical, menacing, callous, ignorant, narrow-minded and, at times, blatantly fascistic behavior and rhetoric.”