(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Two North Dakota nonprofits have settled their lawsuit against the white nationalist group Patriot Front, which allegedly vandalized local businesses and public property in recent years.
Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed. The settlement, which was docketed in federal court on Feb. 7, appears to cover Patriot Front leader Thomas Rousseau and member Trevor Valescu—but not the other 10 anonymous members listed on the lawsuit as John Does.
Five members of the Patriot Front have settled a lawsuit with two anonymous plaintiffs, who sued them for vandalizing a mural honoring black tennis star Arthur Ashe.
The terms of the settlement weren't disclosed. The lawsuit remains ongoing against some 20 other Patriot Front… pic.twitter.com/gesFtCuaK2
— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) December 24, 2024
The settlement stems from a 2023 lawsuit filed by the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition and the Immigrant Development Center, which alleged that Patriot Front vandalized businesses and public property in recent years, including spray-painting Patriot Front designs on the front of the International Market Plaza, an indoor marketplace for immigrant business owners in Fargo. The complaint also claims they defaced a mural depicting Black women wearing hijabs.
The lawsuit mostly sat on the docket in its early stages, with the plaintiffs claiming they couldn’t serve the group members because they went “underground.”
“Patriot Front has no known physical address and operates as a semi-clandestine white nationalist organization online. And Defendant Rousseau and Defendant [Trevor] Valescu’s whereabouts are likewise unknown, despite Plaintiffs’ best efforts to locate them,” the plaintiffs said in December 2023.
The plaintiffs were given permission to serve the Patriot Front via email.
Last year, a federal judge dismissed some of the claims against Rousseau and Valescu. The parties commenced settlement talks soon thereafter.
The settlement comes about a month after a federal judge issued a default judgment against Patriot Front members last year in a separate case—ordering them to pay more than $2.7 million to a black man they allegedly accosted in July 2022 in an incident where no criminal charges were filed.
In yet another case involving the vandalism of a mural honoring black tennis star Arthur Ashe, five members reached a settlement—but not Rousseau, who already has a default judgment issued against him in that case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
