In February, “Ricky” signed a federal lawsuit filed with former President Trump and then disappeared.
Since then, people on both Trump’s side and the team that is pressing the case on behalf of Mississippi Democratic MP Bennie Thompson have been scratching their heads about who, exactly, is the mysterious “Ricky” and why he accepted correspondence for the ex-president .
Over the past few weeks, normally well-informed sources on both sides have responded to questions from The Daily Beast with their own questions, such as “Who the hell is Ricky?” and “DO YOU know who Ricky is?”
Now, the mystery “Ricky” – just “Ricky”, with no surname listed – has spread through the federal court, where Trump’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, asked the judge for more time to respond to Thompson’s lawsuit in part because of the difficulty in identifying the unknown signer. In a motion filed on Thursday night, Binnall wrote that a “Ricky” appeared to have signed a lawsuit sent to Trump – and so that person has yet to deliver the papers to the former president twice on impeachment.
“The plaintiff attempted to deliver to Mr. Trump by registered letter on February 23, 2021. This package was signed by an unknown individual identified only as ‘Ricky’,” says the court case. Binnall also states, “Mr. Trump disputes whether that service was legally effective. “
A service return receipt filed in early March shows that someone named “Ricky” signed the documents at Trump’s private club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, according to the document.
However, Binnall also said that his client’s position that the service was potentially damaged “is debatable because the parties decided to focus on the substantive disputes in question and agreed on an extension of time for Mr. Trump to respond to the complaint, until up to and including April 26, 2021. ”
Judge Amit Mehta and Democratic Rep. Thompson’s lawyers agreed to the Trump team’s request for an extension and the former president now has until April 26 to submit a response to the lawsuit.
Binnall declined to comment to The Daily Beast on this story on Monday night.
Florida state law allows cases to be filed by registered letter when addressed to defendants.
Thompson’s lawsuit, filed on his behalf by NAACP lawyers, accuses Trump, New York City attorney and former mayor Rudy Giuliani and the far-right militia Oath Keepers and Proud Boys of violating the century-old Klan Act for allegedly conspiring to interfere with civil rights by preventing Congressional officials from fulfilling their duty to certify the victory of Joe Biden polling station on January 6
Thompson argues that Trump, Giuliani’s incendiary rhetoric about a “stolen” election and the involvement of members of Oath Keeper and the Proud Boys in the January 6 riot represented a conspiracy to deprive Americans of their civil rights. Despite the months of Trump and Republican crusades, fueled by conspiracy theory, to overturn the 2020 presidential election result, Biden clearly and decisively defeated the incumbent Republican President at the Electoral College and popular vote counts.
California deputy Eric Swalwell filed a similar lawsuit against Trump and Giuliani, who named Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, and representative Mo Brooks (R-AL) as additional defendants.
Those who defend Trump, and who have defended him in the recent past, are already preparing legal and public relations strategies based on freedom of expression. Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump’s legal defense during the former president’s first impeachment trial, previously told The Daily Beast that “no one [on the Trump team] got in touch with me ”about this process, Dershowitz believes that the ex-president’s rhetoric in his January 6 speech in DC is“ protected by the First Amendment ”and“ I hope the ACLU accepts a case like this. “
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