A Virginia man who admitted to entering the U.S. Capitol during the January 6 riot is suing CNN for defamation.
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.
According to an FBI affidavit, Hiles posted numerous videos and photos on his Facebook page on the day supporters of Trump stormed the Capitol building. They included a selfie he posted that morning with the caption: "Feelin cute...might start a revolution later."
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 alleges that the article accuses Hiles of having "the intention to overthrow a sitting government which is one of the gravest felonies in the United States of America even though at the time of publication he had been charged with four Class B misdemeanors and entered a guilty plea to only one nonviolent misdemeanor and resulting in the three other charges being dismissed."
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."
The lawsuit claims the article has harmed Hiles and his reputation, and seeks $37 million in compensatory damages and a further $350,000 in punitive damages.
Hiles has received "many credible death threats" due to CNN's article, the lawsuit alleges. It also claims that his business has suffered and his young daughter has lost friends and faced difficulties at school due to the article.
Newsweek has contacted attorneys for Hiles and CNN for comment via email. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment.
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