A January 6 rioter from Texas, who assaulted police officers using a metal whip and bear spray, is initiating legal action against the Justice Department. He claims to have suffered “permanent injuries, disfigurement, and sterility” after allegedly being “incorrectly” administered “high doses of estrogen and other inappropriate drugs” while incarcerated for the 2021 Capitol incident.

“This led to the development of female breast tissue and lactation in Taake,” stated the attorneys for Andrew Taake, 36, in a complaint filed in federal court on September 5.

“Taake faced harassment and assaults from fellow inmates, and further injured and disfigured his hand while defending himself,” the complaint alleges.

After being pardoned by President Donald Trump earlier this year, Taake was charged with online solicitation of a minor. In December 2023, he pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon related to the Capitol riot. Trump issued a “full, complete and unconditional” pardon to Taake and approximately 1,500 other rioters earlier this year shortly after assuming office.

The complaint details, “During his incarceration in the U.S. prison system, Taake was denied medical care, proper testing, and was wrongfully injected with high levels of estrogen and other improper drugs. Taake endured nearly half of his three and a half years in solitary confinement, suffering abuse from both staff and inmates.”

Taake”s attorneys claim he was “diagnosed many years before Jan. 6” — including in 2016 — with medical defects of low testosterone.

“The plaintiff suffers from hypogonadism and required testosterone treatments weekly, not monthly,” the complaint claims. “With a persistent hormonal imbalance, Taake needed testosterone medical treatments every seven days. However, the medical staff at the D.C. jail and the Bureau of Prisons displayed open hostility and deliberate indifference to Taake’s medical needs.”

Taake allegedly contracted and tested positive for tuberculosis, and medical staff provided no treatment, his lawsuit says.

“Medical staff … openly mocked Taake, and callously ignored Taake,” the complaint alleges. “While at Lewisburg, Taake was locked down for three months and had to shower while handcuffed to the shower stall. He suffered weeks of solitary confinement.”

According to Taake’s lawyers, correctional staff “wrongly injected” him with estrogen rather than testosterone, causing Taake to develop “female breast tissue” and other alleged ailments. “Taake was never allowed to see the medicine bottles themselves,” the complaint says. “When Taake’s blood was finally tested, his testosterone levels were less than one-tenth of normal,” the document says.

“This caused Taake to be harassed, stalked and assaulted by inmates within the prison system,” the complaint says. “The estrogen injections caused Taake to develop gynecomastia.”

Taake claims he was injected with estrogen “repeatedly,” causing his prolactin levels to become elevated. His lawyers describe prolactin as a “hormone or trigger that causes women to produce breast milk,” the complaint says. “Taake began to produce breast milk,” the document alleges. “Note that most of the time naturally born women do not experience that response until becoming pregnant and giving birth. Thus, the injections of the wrong chemicals were extreme to cause Taake to respond like a female having just given birth.”

Taake made headlines at the time of his Jan. 6 arrest after he was turned in by a woman he met on the dating app Bumble. He was sentenced to 74 months in prison — followed by 36 months of supervised release — in addition to paying $2,000 in restitution.

“Due to the unlawful conduct of the Defendants, Taake suffered a three-and-a-half year prison horror story,” the complaint says. “While wrongly imprisoned over the January 6 events, Taake sought medical attention but was denied, delayed, and knowingly misdiagnosed and mistreated.”

Taake is seeking relief and damages against the DOJ, as well as several Trump administration officials, for the “pain and suffering, emotional distress, lack of enjoyment of life and freedom to engage in normal life due to such lingering effects as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” his lawyers say. He describes what allegedly happened to him as being “illegal, unconstitutional and intentional.”

Taake was was arrested earlier this year in Leon County, Texas, for a 2016 charge of online solicitation of a minor that cops discovered. Prosecutors in Harris County took up the solicitation charge.

“Re-arresting individuals, like Taake, who were released with pending State warrants, will require significant resources,” District Attorney Sean Teare said in a statement before Taake’s arrest. “Know that we are already in the process of tracking Taake down, as he must answer for 2016 charge of soliciting a minor online.”

According to the Houston Chronicle, Taake was allegedly soliciting a person in 2016 who he “believed to be younger than 17 years of age.” He was 27 at the time.

Authorities say Taake talked on social media with an undercover cop posing as a 15-year-old girl. He allegedly sent “multiple explicit messages” and asked to meet up with her — even admitting that he “could go to jail” if anyone found out what he was doing. Taake allegedly went to an address that the undercover provided and cops arrested him. If convicted, he faces a decade in prison.