Capitol Rioter Sues CNN for $37 Million

A Virginia man who admitted to entering the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 riot is suing CNN for defamation.

Newsweek reports Jacob Hiles, a charter boat captain, traveled from Virginia Beach to Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021, to "express his support for President [Donald] Trump by exercising his 1st Amendment rights guaranteed to him under the United States Constitution," according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia earlier this week and reviewed by Newsweek.

Hiles pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building in September 2021. He was sentenced in December 2021 to two years of probation and ordered to complete 60 hours of community service.

Jacob Hiles

His lawsuit alleges CNN defamed him in an article published on October 15, 2021, with the headline: "US Capitol Police officer indicted on obstruction of justice charges in connection with January 6."

The article reported on the indictment of Michael Angelo Riley, a Capitol police officer who prosecutors said messaged Hiles on Facebook and encouraged him to delete his posts. Riley was sentenced to two years of probation and four months of home detention earlier this year after being convicted on one count of obstruction of justice.

The article's focus later shifts to Hiles, with a subheading that says: "Man wanted to start 'a revolution' on January 6."

According to the lawsuit, that subheading and the article's contents are defamatory because "they falsely accuse Hiles of felonious criminal activity of which he was not charged or convicted, either directly or indirectly."

The lawsuit says CNN acknowledged that Hiles pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor "but continued to mislead their viewers by painting a picture of a violent revolutionary intent on causing violence on January 6, 2021."