Read the original story on the Grand Forks Herald.
By April Baumgarten
October 07, 2024 at 6:25 AM
FARGO — Leaders of what is often called a white supremacist group want a lawsuit that alleges they are responsible for vandalism at an immigrant business center in Fargo dismissed.
Patriot Front founder and National Director Thomas Rousseau, as well as Network Director Trevor Valescu, filed court documents Friday, Sept. 30, that denied allegations laid out in a lawsuit filed against them more than a year ago in North Dakota U.S. District Court. The North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, Immigrant Development Center and a person identified in the lawsuit as “Plaintiff Doe” sued Patriot Front, Rousseau, Valescu and 10 unnamed defendants.
The suit that was filed Sept. 1, 2023, alleged the defendants trespassed the International Market Plaza in early September 2022, “under the cover of darkness” and spray painted Patriot Front’s logo, website and other designs on a mural that depicts diverse groups of people and produce.
The Immigrant Development Center rents space to the International Market Plaza and other businesses at 1345 Main Ave. in Fargo. The International Market is a multicultural grocery store.
Among other allegations, the lawsuit alleged that the defendants violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which prohibits groups from forming with intentions of “interfering with rights” protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Valescu, who oversees Patriot Front activities in North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota, and Rousseau, denied knowledge of the vandalism in their court filings. They also denied that Patriot Front is a white supremacist or white nationalist group, that their website is “littered with racist and xenophobic propaganda,” and that the group is “deeply racist.”
“Patriot Front engages in activism through lawful political activism consistent with its First Amendment right,” Rousseau and Valescu said in court filings.
