A federal judge in Seattle has dismissed a lawsuit filed by five individuals affiliated with the white nationalist group Patriot Front against a Washington man accused of infiltrating the group, stealing its data, and exposing members’ personal details online. U.S. District Judge Richard A. Jones issued the ruling last week, granting the defendant’s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim.

The plaintiffs — Paul Gancarz, Daniel Turetchi, Colton Brown, James Johnson, and Amelia Johnson — alleged in their 2023 federal complaint that the defendant, identified as David Alan Capito II (now using the name Vyacheslav Arkhangelskiy), joined Patriot Front under a false identity in mid-2021. They claimed he secretly recorded meetings, photographed license plates and faces, and later worked with outside parties to hack into the organization’s online communications.

According to the complaint, the data breach exposed internal messages, membership lists, and video chat links that were later circulated publicly, prompting what members described as a coordinated harassment campaign involving phone calls to employers, vandalism, and public shaming. Each plaintiff alleged resulting financial or personal harm, including job loss, relocation, or damaged reputations.

Judge Jones ruled that such harms — while potentially significant — do not meet the legal definition of “loss” within the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The statute, he wrote, applies narrowly to costs linked to investigation, restoration, or technical disruption from a computer intrusion, rather than downstream personal or economic fallout. Because the federal claim failed, the court declined to exercise jurisdiction over accompanying state law claims for privacy invasion, fraud, and computer trespass.

The case was dismissed without prejudice, leaving the plaintiffs the option to amend their complaint within 21 days. If they do not refile, the dismissal effectively ends the suit at the federal level, though state claims could potentially reappear in another venue.

The Patriot Front organization, active in multiple states including Washington and Oregon, has been the subject of widespread legal and public scrutiny in recent years for its involvement in racial propaganda campaigns and flash demonstrations. The alleged infiltration described in the lawsuit was said to have taken place within the group’s Pacific Northwest chapters, though no criminal charges have been brought in connection with the underlying allegations.

Original reporting for this story appeared on MyNorthwest.