N.D. groups sue white supremacist organization Patriot Front in federal court

FARGO (KFGO) – The white supremacist organization Patriot Front is the target of a new lawsuit brought in U.S. District Court in North Dakota. Conspiracy to violate civil rights is the claim leveled against the group by three plaintiffs – the Fargo-based advocacy group North Dakota Human Rights Coalition (NDHRC), the Immigrant Development Center (IDC), and the IDC’s executive director, identified only as Plaintiff Doe.

The suit alleges that, on September 3, 2022, individuals affiliated with and acting on behalf of Patriot Front trespassed onto the property of the International Market Plaza, which is owned by the IDC, and vandalized the building with stencils advertising Patriot Front’s website which, the 33-page complaint says, is, “littered with racist and xenophobic propaganda.” The plaintiffs claim the graffiti caused shopkeepers at the plaza to fear for their safety.

The Plaza was vandalized by Patriot Front members again two days later, the suit alleges, this time destroying artwork including a mural that portrayed young Black women wearing hijabs, which caused a number of the female shopkeepers and patrons of African and Middle Eastern descent to be particularly concerned. Some, the complaint says, “curtailed or even eliminated their use of the Plaza, feeling compelled to avoid its shops,” due to Patriot Front’s attacks.

The complaint, filed Friday, says Patriot Front’s actions were intended to cause fear and deprive others – especially immigrants of color – of their rights.

Patriot Front is a Texas-headquartered alt-right, white supremacist group which rose to prominence in 2017.  A manifesto posted on Patriot Front’s website, which was stenciled repeatedly on the International Market Plaza during the vandalism, states that true Americans are those “of the founding stock of our [European] people.” The group’s mission is “a hard reset on the nation we see today – a return to the traditions and virtues of our [European] forefathers.”

The suit is the latest of a number of similar cases filed against Patriot Front and its leaders alleging civil rights violations. Under the leadership of Thomas Rousseau, who is a named defendant, the group has targeted events and artwork honoring Black and Jewish people, the LGBTQ+ community, and New Americans across the country.

It is the first federal case to name Trevor Valescu as a defendant. Also known as “Johnny MN,” the suit claims Valescu serves as Network Director for Patriot Front’s Network 11, which includes North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. It is believed Valescu lives in the southern Minnesota town of Faribault.

The suit also names ten John Doe defendants, four of whom are Patriot Front members who directly engaged in the vandalism at the International Market Plaza, and another six who are unknown to the plaintiffs, but are alleged to have conspired with the other four to perpetrate the attacks.

The complaint says Patriot Front escalated its destruction in Fargo in the fall of 2022, by vandalizing Red Raven Espresso Parlor, Fargo Public Schools District headquarters, light posts outside A&E Liberian Restaurant, the 9th St S. pedestrian tunnel under I-94, and other public places around town. It says Patriot Front members “have continued to terrorize the Fargo-Moorhead immigrant community as recently as July 2023,” citing another spate of Patriot Front propaganda and signs which appeared in the area after the July 14 fatal police ambush by Mohamad Barakat.

Two of the suit’s four counts claim Patriot Front and its leaders violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. That law was designed to prevent groups from conspiring to deprive any person “of the equal protection of laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws,” and that such deprivation of rights may involve showing “that some racial, or perhaps otherwise class-based…discriminatory animus lay behind the conspirators action.”

The NDHRC and IDC are represented by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a Washington, D.C.-based firm, as well as attorneys from the law offices of Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco, and former U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon, a partner at Minneapolis-based Robins Kaplan.

The plaintiffs are demanding a jury trial. The defendants have three weeks to respond to the complaint.