Proud Boys must give up rights to their trademark to Black church they vandalized: report

The Proud Boys have lost their rights to profit off their name — to a Black church.

According to The New York Times, the far-right group "was stripped of control over the trademark 'Proud Boys' and was barred from selling any merchandise with either its name or its symbols without the consent of a Black church in Washington that its members vandalized. In June 2023, the church won a $2.8 million default judgment against the Proud Boys after the organization’s former leader, Enrique Tarrio, and several of his subordinates attacked it in a night of violence after a pro-Trump rally in December 2020."

The church in question, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal, called the Proud Boys' vandalism “acts of terror” in their lawsuit, and a plot “to intimidate the church and silence its support for racial justice.”

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During the incident in question, members of the group scaled a fence at the church and burned a Black Lives Matter flag that was flying on the premises.

The Proud Boys are best known for their street-brawling clashes with counterprotesters in cities throughout America, as well as their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Tarrio and other leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy but had their sentences commuted by President Donald Trump last month as part of a mass clemency of those who fought for him on Jan. 6.

Tarrio condemned the ruling, specifically attacking D.C. Superior Court Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier and calling for her impeachment, saying “I hold in contempt any motions, judgments and orders issued against me.”

This comes as Tarrio also threatens to file lawsuits against the federal government for his prosecution, although legal experts consider that to be a long shot.