Government

Are You A Domestic Terrorist? Call Attorney John Pierce Now!

*Or possibly his paralegal.

By  
on

Less than two years after the spectacular implosion of his eponymous law firm Pierce Bainbridge, attorney John Pierce has rebuilt his practice from the ground up.

Sure there’ve been a few hiccups along the way, like litigation with a former partner alleging wrongful termination and getting fired by teenage vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse amid disputes about donated funds. Plus there was that whole messiness about having to take a leave of absence from his firm around the time his wife obtained a protective order alleging that his substance abuse issues had spiraled out of control, including screenshots of texts where he called her a “Valley c**t” and threatened, “I will bury u if I have to.”

But that’s all in the past. Now Pierce is flying high, entering his appearance on behalf of approximately 15 Capitol Riot defendants. And it seems the attorney will be racking up the frequent flier miles, too, since he’s agreed to represent yet another domestic terrorist on the other side of the country.

On Friday, Pierce filed a Third Amended Complaint on behalf of the estate of LaVoy Finicum. Finicum was part of the group which staged and armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in 2016 to protest being charged grazing fees on federal lands.

He was shot and killed by Oregon state troopers, at the conclusion of a high speed chase, after daring the assembled federal and state law enforcement agents to kill him and reaching for his jacket, where he had a gun.

In 2018, Finicum’s family filed a wrongful death suit against the Bureau of Land Management and various state officials seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages. The case proceeded in slapstick fashion, and in August, US District Judge Michael W. Mosman dismissed most of the claims, giving plaintiffs one more chance to amend their complaint once they work out WHAT IS CONSPIRACY.

Enter John Pierce, who axed ten pages and three counts from the Second Amended Complaint and slapped his John Hancock on it Friday. He left in the part about “an unconstitutional scheme and plan” to “end, with lethal force, a growing series of political protests by LaVoy and others participating with him, against federal government overreach and illegal activity by the BLM and other divisions within the United States Department of the Interior.” Also the part likening Finicum to a North Korean citizen who was shot by his own government in 2017 while attempting to defect, because Finicum was reportedly going to speak to a sympathetic local law enforcement official, and those two things are exactly the same.

Sponsored

“This lawsuit is brought to obtain relief for LaVoy’s surviving heirs, and to ensure that the idea of being shot in the back, by your own government, while trying to cross a county border to spread a political message, and while seeking protection by bona-fide law enforcement, from unhinged, overreaching, and corrupt federal and state officers, can return to being what it once was in the minds of American citizens – unthinkable,” the complaint argues.

Pierce claims to be representing Finicum’s survivors in concert with the National Constitutional Law Union, a 501(c)(4) set up last year to receive donations for Rittenhouse’s defense. It’s unclear if there are other lawyers attached to the project, but when Pierce disappeared last month for reasons which may or may not have involved COVID, there was no one to appear in court but his unbarred law clerk.

It’s a long way down from “creating SEAL Team Six of litigation” to lining up behind every domestic terrorist who’ll have you. But what better time to take on yet another high-profile case against the government, right?

Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Sponsored

Topics

,