The Incident

On June 11, 2025 I was peacefully and legally protesting Heritage Foundation, the Trump administration, and Project 2025 on a public walkway in front of Heritage headquarters in Washington, DC. Heritage security falsely claimed that I was on their property, and they assaulted me. Fearing I would be injured, I defended myself with pepper spray, to which the Heritage security manager responded by pointing a gun at my face with his finger on the trigger. You can read more about the incident in my blog post .

Malicious Prosecution

US Capitol Police responded and did a completely one-sided investigation. Based only on Heritage Foundation’s lies, I was arrested, jailed, and charged with two counts of assaulting police–charges legally incompatible with the easily verified fact that this occurred entirely on public property.

The US DOJ then prosecuted me for these meritless charges, after being instructed to do so by Heritage Foundation . For an entire year, this consumed my life. On top of working full time, I learned law, developed strategy, wrote numerous motions, and took unpaid leave for the many expensive trips I would have to make back to DC for hearings.

In June of 2026 I represented myself pro se in a five day jury trial (DC Superior Court 2025 CMD 006596 ). It was obvious to everyone that this was a malicious prosecution without a shred of merit, and after a short deliberation I was found not guilty of all charges.

Civil Complaint

I believe I deserve to be compensated. I knew that until the criminal matter was resolved, it would be very difficult to find representation for a lawsuit. However, the deadline to file at least some parts of my complaint was one year from the incident. To avoid missing that deadline, I filed as pro se my own civil complaint (USDC D.D.C. 1:26-cv-01948) against Heritage on June 3, 2026, the day before my criminal trial began.

With the criminal trial complete, I am now getting much more interest from lawyers in representing me. I was hoping I would find one quickly enough that I wouldn’t have to ask for donations. However, finding a firm with room in their budget to front the costs continues to take time, and my complaint is already on a timeline with approaching deadlines.

This Fundraiser

My plan now, while I continue to seek representation by a lawyer who can front the costs, is to do some of the initial work myself. Or, if donations allow, with paid representation. Your donations will be used to support the following items, in order of priority.

1) Civil complaint expenses such as court fees, process service, transcripts from my criminal trial, travel, etc.

2) Legal consulting or paid representation in the civil complaint

3) Repayment of unsecured personal debt resulting directly from the malicious prosecution (travel, lost wages, etc.)

4) If everything else is covered: Future political activism or advocacy

Update: On August 16, 2026, I was arrested and detained for approximately 4 hours under a false pretense that I had crossed a police line. I'm not being charged because they know they were wrong! I may also use these donations to fund litigation related to this incident, or to other incidents that may unexpectedly arise.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Nate Wetter