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Attorney General Karl A. Racine
Photo: JONATHAN ERNST / REUTERS
The radical right groups "Proud Boys" and "Oath Keeper" are threatened with further legal trouble because of the storming of the US Capitol.
Washington DC filed a lawsuit against the militias.
"You have done great damage to the district, our democracy and especially the brave men and women of our (police)," said Attorney General Karl A. Racine on Tuesday.
Racine accuses the groups of planning the Capitol attack and taking part in it and is demanding compensation for unspecified amounts.
"The result of these plans, the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, was neither a protest nor a rally," says the indictment.
"It was a coordinated act of domestic terrorism."
Racine said the lawsuit is the first attempt by a government agency to hold any organization or person civilly responsible for the January 6 violence.
Individual members of the two militias are already being investigated under criminal law.
Supporters of then President Donald Trump stormed the seat of the US Congress in Washington on January 6th, when the victory of the Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election on November 3rd was to be certified there.
Five people were killed, including a police officer.
Law of 1871 as the basis
The City of Washington's lawsuit is based on an act of 1871 known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. The law was passed to crack down on racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
An article of the law prohibits conspiracies intended to prevent office holders from performing their official duties.
A House of Representatives committee of inquiry is also looking into the background to the storming of the Capitol.
The MPs examine, among other things, what role Trump and his environment played in the attack.
On Monday, the investigative committee recommended that Trump's former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, be charged with disregard for Congress.
Meadows refuses to respond to a summons from the panel.
The next step is for the House of Representatives to vote.
Steve Bannon, former Donald Trump strategist, is already in the middle of a criminal case.
ngo / dpa / AFP