Representative Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Opened a civil suit on Tuesday against former President Trump, accusing him of inciting the deadly riot at the Capitol on January 6 and conspiring with lawyer Rudy Giuliani and extremist groups to prevent Congress from certifying President Biden’s Electoral College to win.
Thompson, the chairman of the House’s Homeland Security Committee, joined the NAACP to file the lawsuit in the federal court in Washington, DC, claiming that Trump violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, passed to prevent violence or intimidation against members of Congress or other federally employed officials to fulfill their constitutional duties.
Thompson’s lawsuit is believed to be the first one brought by a member of Congress against Trump for the consequences of the January 6 riot, which ended with five dead, including a Capitol police officer. The suit sought an unspecified amount of monetary damages. Other members of Congress must sign. In addition to Trump and Giuliani, the 32-page lawsuit names the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, extreme right-wing extremist groups, as defendants.
“January 6 was one of the most shameful days in the history of our country, and it was instigated by the president himself,” Thompson said in a statement. “His cheerful support for violent white supremacists led to a violation of the Capitol that put my life, and that of my colleagues, in grave danger. It was by a minimum of luck that the result was no longer deadly.
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“While the majority of Republicans in the Senate abdicated their responsibility to hold the president accountable, we must hold him accountable for the insurrection he planned so blatantly. Failure to do so will only attract this kind of authoritarianism to anti-democratic forces in the extreme. right that is so committed to destroying our country. “
Deputy Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., Filed the lawsuit on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Giuliani did not immediately respond to Fox News’s request for comment. But Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, told Fox News’ that Trump did not incite violence.
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“President Trump was acquitted in the last witch hunt for the Democrats’ impeachment, and the facts are irrefutable,” Miller said in a statement. “President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the January 6 rally at Ellipse. President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence on Capitol Hill on January 6.”
Miller also blamed the Democrats.
“Spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi and Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser must answer questions about why they rejected the additional security and assistance from the National Guard in the January 6 race,” said Miller.
Trump was impeached in the House for inciting insurrection for his role in the January 6 riot, but the Senate acquitted the former president of the prosecution on Saturday by 57 votes to 43 – 10 senators unless the required supermajority.
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The lawsuit was filed by the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC. In a press release announcing the civil action, the law firm referred to the scathing speech by Senate Republican Party leader Mitch McConnell after Saturday’s acquittal, where he pointed out that Trump is not immune to civil litigation or criminal justice. . McConnell, R-Ky., Blamed Trump for the riot, but found him “innocent” in the impeachment trial on constitutional grounds.
“The Capitol insurrection didn’t just happen spontaneously – it was the product of Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s lies about the election,” said Joe Sellers, a partner at Cohen Milstein, in a statement. “With the Senate failing to hold the president accountable, we must use the full weight of the legal system to do so.”