The Democratic deputy claims he directly incited the violence.
In a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Washington, DC, Friday, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell sued former President Donald Trump and some of his allies, including his son, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and the representative of the Republican Party Mo Brooks because of his alleged roles in the events leading up to and surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
In the 65-page lawsuit, Swalwell, who was the House’s impeachment manager during Trump’s second Senate trial, alleges that they all directly incited violence in the United States Capitol by making “a clear call to action” to which the crowd answered.
“Trump directly incited the violence on the Capitol that followed and then watched with approval as the building was invaded,” the suit said.
“While Trump was instructing them to go to the Capitol, the insurgents were already forcing their way through the barricades, trying to breach the building, while blowing up Trump’s speech in a megaphone,” he says.
It also claims that the defendants also violated federal laws, including the DC Anti-Terrorism Act.
Swalwell claims in the process that the events on Capitol Hill “were a direct and predictable consequence of the Defendants’ illegal actions” and in a statement posted on his Twitter account, Swalwell said that everyone is responsible for the injuries and destruction that followed.
As a direct and predictable consequence of the Defendants ‘false and incendiary allegations of fraud and theft, and in direct response to the Defendants’ expressed pleas for violence at the rally, a violent mob attacked the US Capitol and interrupted the counting of polling station votes by the Congress. The Defendants gathered, ignited and incited the crowd and, as such, are fully responsible for the injuries and destruction that followed.
It is the second such process that attempts to hold the former president and those close to him accountable for his actions before and around January 6.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, claimed in a lawsuit last month that Trump, Giuliani the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers conspired to violate the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which prohibits any actions designed to prevent Congress from carrying out its functions when it incited the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill.