Trump, his aide named in suit over D.C. melee

FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2020 file photo, Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., speaks during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on 'worldwide threats to the homeland', on Capitol Hill Washington.
FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2020 file photo, Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., speaks during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on 'worldwide threats to the homeland', on Capitol Hill Washington.

WASHINGTON -- The NAACP on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, claiming that they violated a 19th-century statute when they tried to prevent the certification of the election Jan. 6.

The civil-rights organization filed the suit on behalf of Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. Other Democrats in Congress -- including Reps. Hank Johnson of Georgia and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey -- are expected to join as plaintiffs in the coming weeks, according to the NAACP.

The lawsuit contends that Trump and Giuliani violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 statute that includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfered with Congress' constitutional duties; the suit also names the Proud Boys, the far-right nationalist group, and the Oath Keepers militia group. The legal action accuses Trump, Giuliani and the two groups of conspiring to incite a violent riot at the Capitol, with the goal of preventing Congress from certifying the election.

Trump and Giuliani gave speeches near the White House before the Jan. 6 insurrection, with Giuliani calling for "trial by combat," and Trump saying he would join marchers down Pennsylvania Avenue to give lawmakers "the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country." Trump repeatedly promoted the Jan. 6 rally that occurred ahead of the riots, posting it "will be wild!" on Twitter.

"The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence," the suit says. "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."

The suit is the latest legal problem for Trump: New York prosecutors are investigating his financial dealings; New York's attorney general is pursuing a civil investigation into whether Trump's company misstated assets to get bank loans and tax benefits; and a Georgia district attorney is examining his election interference effort there.

Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump, noted in response to the lawsuit that the Senate had acquitted the former president of the article of impeachment on inciting an insurrection. The Senate voted 57-43, falling short of the two-thirds majority required to convict.

"President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse. President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6," Miller said in a statement Tuesday.

In the lawsuit, Thompson said he was forced to wear a gas mask and hide on the floor of the House gallery for three hours while hearing "threats of physical violence against any member who attempted to proceed to approve the Electoral College ballot count." Thompson also heard a gunshot, according to the suit, which he did not learn until later had killed Ashli Babbitt, one of the rioters in the Capitol lobby.

Thompson is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. The suit does not include a specific financial amount.

Thompson, 72, says he was put at an increased health risk by later being required to shelter in place in a cramped area that did not allow for social distancing. The lawsuit notes that Thompson shared confined space with two members of Congress who tested positive for the coronavirus shortly after the attack at the Capitol.

In an interview Monday, Thompson said he would not have filed the suit against Trump if the Senate had voted to convict him in last week's impeachment trial.

"I feared for my life," Thompson said. "Not a day passes that I don't think about this incident. I was committed to seeing justice brought to this situation."

He added: "This is me, and hopefully others, having our day in court to address the atrocities of Jan. 6. I trust the better judgment of the courts because obviously Republican members of the Senate could not do what the evidence overwhelmingly presented."

TRUMP AS PERSON

Presidents are historically afforded broad immunity from lawsuits for actions they take in their role as commander in chief. But the lawsuit filed Tuesday was filed against Trump in his personal, not official, capacity, and alleges that none of the behavior at issue had to do with his responsibilities as president.

"Inciting a riot, or attempting to interfere with the congressional efforts to ratify the results of the election that are commended by the Constitution, could not conceivably be within the scope of ordinary responsibilities of the president," Joseph Sellers, a lawyer who represents Thompson, said in an interview.

"In this respect, because of his conduct, he is just like any other private citizen," he said.

Democratic and Republican members of Congress have recently raised the prospect of Trump being held accountable in the courts for the riot. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, voted to acquit Trump in the impeachment trial but then appeared to encourage people to take their fight to the courts.

"He didn't get away with anything, yet," McConnell said at the trial's conclusion, noting: "We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation."

In a statement Tuesday, Trump criticized McConnell and said the senator "begged" Trump for his support in his 2020 reelection. Trump also threatened to back primary challengers to lawmakers who are not aligned with him.

"Where necessary and appropriate, I will back primary rivals who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America First. We want brilliant, strong, thoughtful, and compassionate leadership," Trump warned.

Trump criticized McConnell's intellect, his appearance and more, saying the leader lacks "political insight, wisdom, skill, and personality" and describing him as a "dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack."

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday that Biden supports the rights of individuals "to take steps through the judicial process," but she declined to comment further.

The lawsuit tests rarely litigated and long unvisited areas of law.

The 1871 act was requested and signed during Reconstruction by President Ulysses S. Grant, who invoked it that October to suppress violence in the South, including in nine South Carolina counties in rebellion. The law helped break the power of the Klan and other groups terrorizing Black voters and marauding lawmakers elected to Congress from readmitted former Confederate states, but has not been used as Tuesday's lawsuit contemplates in modern times.

The Supreme Court also has ruled that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for actions undertaken in their official capacity, a term that courts have interpreted generously.

Thompson's attorneys argue that directing an assault on a co-equal branch of Congress in no way qualifies as protecting and defending the U.S. Constitution. Even if Trump were generously to be considered "electioneering," politicking is a candidate's function, not a presidential one, they said.

Likewise, whether a court someday decides that Trump incited violence or engaged in First Amendment-protected political speech, the question is not whether his remarks were lawful, attorney Joseph Sellers said, but "whether he conspired with others to seek to prevent Congress from completing the ratification of the electoral process, and inciting a riot to take over the Capitol was a means to that end."

Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, said the decision to seek compensatory and punitive damages was rooted in a history of tools that have worked to fight back against white supremacy.

"The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan that bankrupted a chapter," he said, referring to a 2008 judgment against a Kentucky Klan outfit that ordered the group to pay $2.5 million in damages. "This is very similar. If we do nothing, we can be ensured these groups will continue to spread and grow in their boldness. We must curb the spread of white supremacy."

While much of the focus of the impeachment trial rested on how the violent mob was threatening former Vice President Mike Pence as well as congressional leaders like the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, NAACP officials said the attack was deeply rooted in racial injustice.

"Underlying this insurrection were the actions of folks who were challenging the voices of people of color," said Janette McCarthy Louard, deputy general counsel of the NAACP. "If you look at whose votes were being challenged, these came from largely urban areas. The votes of people of color were being challenged."

Information for this article was contributed by Annie Karni of The New York Times; by Eric Tucker of The Associated Press; and by Spencer S. Hsu, Ann E. Marimow, Keith L. Alexander, Aaron C. Davis and Colby Itkowitz of The Washington Post.

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