Journalist to sue Portland over arrest after Antifa agitator who attacked him walked free

Independent journalist Nick Sortor is suing the city of Portland after police arrested him but not Antifa militants who allegedly attacked him outside the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office, which he says reflects bias within the Portland Police Bureau against conservatives.

Sortor filed a tort claim notice on Thursday, signaling a planned $10 million federal civil-rights lawsuit. The notice alleged that the city and police have a “long-standing pattern and practice” of hostility toward conservative viewpoints and “tolerance, sympathy or coordination with Antifa.” Court documents obtained by The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI characterize Sortor’s arrest as lacking probable cause and violating the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments, and retaliating against First Amendment–protected newsgathering activity. It further stated the arrest decision “originated with high-ranking” command staff and was “designed to appease” left-wing activists at the scene.

In the tort claim, Sortor said he was lawfully recording video and using a handheld light in low-light conditions when masked individuals threatened him, allegedly saying they would “kill him” or “Charlie Kirk him,” while officers observed and did not intervene. The notice further alleged a masked protester used an umbrella to push him, others swarmed him, someone swung a fist near his head, and the crowd pushed him into a drainage depression/bioswale before he escaped toward officers for safety.

The notice also included a broad “demand for preservation of evidence,” asking the city to institute a litigation hold and preserve electronically stored information and related materials dating from Jan. 1, 2017, to the present, long before the 120 nights of consecutive Antifa and BLM riots that rocked Rose City in 2020.

Sortor was arrested on Oct. 2 while covering an ICE protest and spent the night in the downtown county jail on suspicion of second-degree disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office dropped the case four days later, stating that black-clad militants, Antifa in black bloc, had pushed Sortor into a drainage planter and concluded he acted in self-defense. However, prosecutors justified the actions of the responding officers, claiming they had probable cause at the time because they did not have access to surveillance footage.

Sortor’s attorney, D. Angus Lee, said the lawsuit will seek punitive damages for alleged Fourth Amendment violations. Framed as a Monell claim, it argues the city maintains an “unspoken policy” of targeting conservatives. Lee also told the outlet that some officers are pressured by the bias of the bureau’s leadership and suggested depositions would shed light on internal practices.

Portland police officials have repeatedly denied political discrimination. After Sortor’s arrest, Harmeet K. Dhillon, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said she would pursue her own inquiry. Lee submitted a memorandum to Dhillon in November outlining alleged examples of viewpoint discrimination.

Antifa militants have targeted the Portland ICE facility since June during the first “No Kings” protests, with unrest escalating after President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 27 that he would deploy the National Guard, drawing additional radicals and online influencers. Most of the protesters left the area when Portland’s rainy season began.