A federal judge rejected Jack “Ziz” LaSota’s Second Amendment claim to throw out his federal felony case. His trans cult has been linked to eight deaths.
A federal judge has denied a motion by the leader of a violent transgender cult seeking to dismiss his felony case on Second Amendment grounds.
Jack LaSota, 34, who uses the name “Ziz,” argued through his attorney that a federal indictment accusing him of being a fugitive in possession of firearms and ammunition violates his constitutional right to bear arms.
LaSota’s lawyer, Gary Proctor, filed the motion in February, arguing that the law used to charge his client is unconstitutional when applied to someone who is peaceful.
“The charges for which Ms. LaSota might be considered a ‘fugitive’ are non-violent offenses, comprised largely of misdemeanors,” Proctor wrote. “No historical tradition supports disarming someone for nonviolent crimes.”
LaSota had been a fugitive from separate state criminal cases in California and Pennsylvania until authorities discovered him hiding in rural western Maryland last year. His arrest followed a nationwide manhunt linked to a string of violent incidents involving members of his radical group.
Prosecutors say LaSota was found with a .50-caliber rifle, a handgun, roughly 420 rounds of rifle ammunition, and more than 50 rounds of 9mm ammunition.
The group, known informally as the “Zizians,” is a network of leftist trans vegan anarchist rationalists that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area before establishing communes and hideouts in the East Coast.
The group holds secretive, cult-like beliefs and has written about conducting human experimentation on members and recruits, while promoting the idea that trans people possess special cognitive gifts.
Authorities have linked members of the group to two suicides and six homicides between 2018 and 2025.
U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar rejected LaSota’s motion on March 4, ruling that the federal law prohibiting fugitives from possessing firearms does not violate the Second Amendment.
“Congress has now determined that all fugitives from justice — whether they are fleeing felonies, misdemeanors, violent crimes, or nonviolent crimes — are too dangerous to possess firearms,” Bredar wrote. “LaSota rejects the notion that someone fleeing prosecution for misdemeanors and nonviolent crimes could be dangerous. But the power to make that determination is entrusted to Congress, not to LaSota and not to this Court.”
LaSota’s attorney previously chastised the U.S. Department of Justice for deadnaming and misgendering his client.
“In the indictment the Government uses Defendant’s ‘deadname’ of Jack LaSota,” Proctor wrote. “The Government also doubles down on offensively labeling Ms. LaSota by using male pronouns such as ‘he was a fugitive from justice.’ It is well known, and widely reported, that Ms. LaSota is transgender.”
LaSota still has an open criminal case in Sonoma County, California, including charges of felony conspiracy, child cruelty with possible injury, false imprisonment, wearing a mask or disguise for an unlawful purpose and other crimes.
The charges stem from a 2019 incident in which LaSota and three other followers allegedly blocked entrances to Westminster Woods, a camp, while wearing masks and black robes to shut down a rationalist event. Authorities say the confrontation triggered a lockdown at the camp and prompted a response from a police helicopter and SWAT team. Children and families were in fear of their lives during the incident.
In 2022, LaSota faked a death by drowning and disappeared. A warrant was issued for his arrest in California.
The following year, LaSota was arrested in Pennsylvania and charged with obstruction and disorderly conduct — both misdemeanors — during an investigation into a double homicide in Delaware County. His $500,000 bail was later reduced to $10,000 unsecured, meaning he did not have to post cash.
LaSota failed to appear for his trial in December 2023, and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Authorities say his whereabouts remained unknown until February 2025, when he was discovered hiding in box trucks in the woods of Allegany County, Maryland with fellow members Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank following weeks of a manhunt.
The search intensified after a January 2025 shootout in Vermont, near the Canadian border, in which U.S. Border Patrol agent David Maland was killed. Authorities say Maland was shot by Zizian member Teresa “Milo” Youngblut. A German trans member of the group was also killed during the exchange of gunfire.
Maryland prosecutors later charged LaSota, Zajko and Blank with dozens of state offenses, including firearm violations for carrying, transporting and concealing loaded handguns, possession of LSD, narcotics possession with intent to distribute, and drug trafficking involving a firearm.
LaSota and Zajko were also charged with obstruction and possession of an assault weapon.
LaSota’s federal trial is scheduled for May in Baltimore. A request to delay the trial until after the Maryland state case, currently scheduled for June, was recently denied.
LaSota has so far not been formally accused of any of the deaths linked to the cult.
Andy Ngo is the author of the forthcoming book The Cult of Ziz: The Rise of Trans Extremism in America, a political true-crime investigation into the growing phenomenon of trans killers.
