Former US President Donald Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani have been accused of conspiring with the far-right groups, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, to incite the January 6 insurrection in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court by the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee and Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson.
The lawsuit was filed in Thompson’s personal capacity and is the first civil action filed against the former President related to the attack at the US Capitol. The suit comes days after the Senate acquitted Trump in his impeachment trial.
Experts say if it proceeds, it would mean the former President and others would be subject to discovery and depositions, potentially exposing details and evidence that weren’t released during the Senate impeachment trial.
Thompson points to Trump’s words and tweets in the months leading up to the insurrection, to accuse Trump and Giuliani of mobilizing and preparing their supporters for an attack to prevent Congress from certifying the 2020 election results on January 6.
The lawsuit also cites a federal statute passed after the Civil War that was intended to combat violence from the Ku Klux Klan. The statute allows civil actions to be brought against people who use “force, intimidation, or threat” to prevent anyone from upholding the duties of their office.
The suit states that, “As part of this unified plan to prevent the counting of Electoral College votes, Defendants Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, through their leadership, acted in concert to spearhead the assault on the Capitol, while the angry mob that Defendants Trump and Giuliani incited, descended on the Capitol.
“The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence. It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College.”
Thompson’s lawsuit
The former President and many Republicans argued the impeachment trial was unconstitutional because he is no longer in office. As such, Thompson references Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s speech where the senior Republican seemed to encourage litigation against Trump after the impeachment trial.
“We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former Presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
The lawsuit also accuses Trump of delaying the delivery of his speech to the crowd on January 6 as a way to give the Proud Boys time to get to the Capitol and overcome the police presence there, though there is no evidence provided that Trump’s speech was delayed or that any delay was intentional.
Thompson’s lawsuit further alleges that Giuliani riled up the crowd by continuing to talk about unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud and telling supporters on January 6: “Let’s have trial by combat.” In addition to Trump and Giuliani, the lawsuit names the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers as defendants.
Other members of Congress, including Democratic Reps. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey have stated their intention to join the lawsuit as plaintiffs, according to a statement that accompanied the lawsuit.
“While the majority of Republicans in the Senate abdicated their responsibility to hold the President accountable, we must hold him accountable for the insurrection that he so blatantly planned. Failure to do so will only invite this type of authoritarianism for the anti-democratic forces on the far right that are so intent on destroying our country.”
Thompson’s lawsuit
