Charges against two white nationalists dismissed as 'selective prosecution'

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed riot charges against two members of a neo-Nazi street gang who attacked counter-protesters at several pro-Trump rallies in California in 2017, saying the government had behaved improperly by failing to file charges against left-wing activists. who had also acted violently in the same events.

The ruling by judge Cormac J. Carney found that prosecutors had unfairly engaged in “a selective prosecution” of the two men – members of the Rise Above Movement (RAM) – and had targeted them primarily for their vitriolic statements and white supremacist statements. ideology.

While Judge Carney acknowledged that he found the ideas the movement promoted “reprehensible,” he also said it was “constitutionally impermissible” to bring charges against one group but not another based solely on politics.

“The government cannot prosecute RAM members like defendants while ignoring the violence perpetrated by members of Antifa and related far-left groups because RAM engaged in what the government and many believe are more offensive statements,” he wrote.

The decision by Judge Carney, who sits in Federal District Court in Santa Ana, California, immediately ended the case against the two men, Robert Rundo, the founder of RAM and a notorious figure in neo-Nazi circles, and Robert Boman . one of his subordinates. It was also a rare successful use of the tactic of selective prosecution and relied heavily on an appeal to the First Amendment.

“It doesn't matter who you are or what you say,” Judge Carney wrote. “It doesn't matter if you're a supporter of All Lives Matter or a supporter of Black Lives Matter. It doesn't matter if you are a Zionist professor or part of Students for Justice in Palestine. It doesn't matter if you are a member of RAM or Antifa. They are all the same under the Constitution, and all enjoy its protection.”

Mr. Rundo and Mr. Boman were initially arrested in 2018 and charged under a civil rights-era law, the Anti-Riot Act, accused of committing violence at three pro-Trump rallies in California — in Huntington Beach, Berkeley and San Bernardino. – in the spring of 2017. Judge Carney dismissed the charges in 2019, but a federal appeals court reinstated them two years later.

After a superseding indictment was filed against the men and a third member of the group in January 2023, Mr. Rundo fled to Europe. He was extradited from Romania to the United States in August.

In his Order of 35 pagesJudge Carney noted that all of the meetings Mr. Rundo and Mr. Boman had attended occurred within three months of each other in what was President Donald J. Trump's first year in the White House.

The judge described that time as one when far-right and far-left groups “characterized by growing division” over Trump's election “often faced off in public demonstrations, rallies and protests.” The events, he added, “often ended in violence.”

As Judge Carney noted, RAM called itself “a combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy” and trained in hand-to-hand combat. Members of the group, often wearing skeleton masks, showed up at pro-Trump rallies where, as the judge put it, “they would attack individuals they believed were associated with antifa and related far-left groups.”

But in his ruling, Judge Carney noted that members of antifa appeared at the same events, also “used violence to silence their opposition,” but never faced criminal charges.

He pointed out that during the Huntington Beach rally – on March 25, 2017 – a black-clad protester known only as JA used pepper spray against at least two Trump supporters. As more clashes broke out, JA and other left-wing activists “continued to pepper spray Trump supporters, in addition to kicking and punching those around them,” Judge Carney wrote.

Selective prosecution petitions are notoriously difficult to win, essentially requiring suspects to prove that prosecutors discriminated against them by not filing charges against “similarly situated persons.”

Many people charged in connection with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, claimed they were victims of selective prosecution, arguing that the administration went after them more aggressively than the left-wing activists who attacked the Capitol for weeks. federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon. But all of these motions were denied, some by judges appointed by Mr. Trump.

In his ruling, Judge Carney found that the far-right members of RAM and their left-wing counterparts in Antifa were in a similar situation.

“Antifa and associated far-left groups attended the same Trump rallies as the defendants with the express stated intent to shut down, through violence if necessary, protected political speech,” he wrote.

The judge also ruled that the government had effectively discriminated against Mr. Rundo and Mr. Boman by launching a case against them largely because of their political beliefs, and during a particularly heated moment: in the weeks after the bloody far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia , where a white nationalist activist had rammed a counter-protester with his car, killing her.

“There was rightly a backlash against white supremacist groups in the United States after Charlottesville,” Judge Carney wrote. “And while public opposition to white supremacist speech and ideology is exactly how our country should respond to such hateful beliefs, the government cannot make charging decisions based solely on the reprehensible statements and beliefs of the defendants.”