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Trump, Giuliani Sued by House Democrat Bennie Thompson Over Capitol Riot
Posted
February 16, 2021
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0:54Now PlayingA member of Congress sued former President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, claiming they conspired to incite the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in violation of a law enacted to combat the Ku Klux Klan.
Working with the far-right Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, Trump and Giuliani “acted in concert to incite and then carry out” the Capitol insurrection, according to a complaint by Representative Bennie G. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday, was brought by the NAACP on behalf of Thompson under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, which targets conspiracies designed to interfere with the duties of Congress.
Other Democrats, including Democratic Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey and Hank Johnson of Georgia, plan to join the litigation in the coming weeks, according to a news release announcing the suit. The NAACP is not a plaintiff.
The lawsuit offers a new avenue for Democrats to hold Trump accountable for his role in the Capitol riot after the Senate acquitted him of “incitement of insurrection” at the end of his impeachment trial this weekend. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, disputed the claims in the lawsuit, saying Trump “did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol.” A spokeswoman for Giuliani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Echoing the case that Democrats made at the impeachment trial, the lawsuit outlines a series of baseless statements by Trump and Giuliani that cast doubt on the results of the election. “The attack on the Capitol that occurred on January 6, 2021 was no accident,” the lawsuit said. “Defendant Trump, in concert with Defendant Giuliani, mobilized supporters by mounting a campaign of misinformation and anger-laden rhetoric to challenge the validity of the election results.”
The NAACP said Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election amounted to a campaign to disenfranchise Black voters. “Donald Trump needs to be held accountable for deliberately inciting and colluding with white supremacist to stage a coup,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
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