Brandon Straka, the head of the #WalkAway Campaign, filed a defamation lawsuit on Friday against MSNBC, Chris Hayes and Ari Melber claiming "untruthful reporting" on his involvement during the Jan. 6 riot.
He told Newsmax that "Jan. 6 has been used like the vessel" for more serious charges and forcing people to plead guilty.
"I mean, you could have gotten a citation for littering on Capitol grounds that day; but because you were littering on Jan. 6, you're a domestic terrorist and an insurrectionist," said Straka. "It's insane."
He wrote on Twitter, "Today I filed a defamation lawsuit against MSNBC, Chris Hayes, & Ari Melber. I'm fighting back on behalf of every American who’s lives have been irreparably harmed by the duplicitous mainstream media."
Straka then linked to a press release detailing the lawsuit.
Within the retweet, he wrote that for two years, the mainstream media has lied about and misreported his involvement on Jan. 6 with the intent to harm him. Now, he says, "I'm fighting back on behalf of myself and every person who's lives have been irreparably damaged by media machine that cares only about serving their political party masters, and are willing to destroy powerless citizens to do it."
Straka said he hopes his lawsuit will set a precedent for others dealing with "malicious defamation and misreporting." He added, "I hope we could set precedent with that lawsuit. And if we did, we now have about 1,000 Americans who will be able to start filing defamation suits against various media outlets."
According to the press release, "The suit seeks relief for Hayes' and Melber's grievously false statements about Mr. Straka's conduct and 'involvement' with the events of January 6th."
Straka was arrested on Jan. 25 by the FBI in Omaha, Nebraska, on a Class B misdemeanor of disorderly conduct, to which he pleaded guilty. The suit read that MSNBC produced "egregiously malicious and untruthful reporting about the details of his misdemeanor charge."
On his primetime show "All in with Chris Hayes," Hayes showed a video of Straka and said, "We got a guy who was there, who was involved in the lead up to the insurrection ... who breaks into the Capitol."
Authorities say Straka did not enter the Capitol. He was not charged "with any act of violence, vandalism, theft or destruction."
Straka said Hayes also falsely attributed a voice from Jan. 6 footage yelling, "Take it away from him! Take the shield!" to him. Hayes stated, "The 'take the shield, take the shield,' that's him [Straka] yelling that."
Straka was deplatformed from Facebook after the events of Jan. 6.
On MSNBC's "The Beat with Ari Melber," Melber said, "He [Straka] was convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection. He was found to have been trying to help attack police officers ... His name is Brandon Straka. He confessed. He confessed to being guilty. He was found to [have been] helping attack police."
Straka's lawsuit claims, "The Melber statements are materially false because Straka did not confess and was not found by any court to have helped attack police officers or to have attempted an attack on any police officer."
Straka has said this will be "the first in a string of lawsuits" against establishment media for its false reporting over his involvement on Jan. 6. In the coming months, he will be filing more suits.
This is more of a quest to "not only right a wrong" but also "to gather information about why this is happening and who's involved and who's talking to who to try to advance what mission," Straka said.
Newsmax reached out to MSNBC, Mebler and Hayes for comment, but they had not responded Sunday evening.
Straka spearheads the #WalkAway Campaign, an organization he founded during the 2018 midterm elections that claims as membership liberals leaving the Democratic Party for conservatism.
Detractors call the group "astroturf" rather than grassroots as it claims, citing some photos of supposed former liberals were actually stock photos from Shutterstock. #WalkAway said the memes the photos appeared in did not originate with the organization and left-leaning fact-checker Snopes.com said it was unable to determine where the photos originated.
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