Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are urging a federal appeals court to rule that he cannot be sued for allegedly inciting the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol because he has total immunity from such lawsuits.
While the House Jan. 6 committee examines his role in the assault on the Capitol and the Justice Department conducts a wide-ranging criminal investigation, the former president’s lawyers are seeking to shield him from civil lawsuits filed by Democratic members of Congress and two U.S. Capitol police officers who said were injured during the siege.
U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta pared back some of those claims in February but declined to dismiss all of them. The judge ruled that Mr. Trump was not immune from civil lawsuits and that he was acting as a candidate, not performing one of the duties of his office, when speaking at a rally before the riot.
July 22, 202203:09
In a legal brief filed this week, Trump’s lawyers urged the U.S. Court Appeals for the District of Columbia to find that that the judge wrongly concluded that courts should look at the contents of a president’s remarks when deciding whether immunity applies. “Examining the contents of a tweet or speech constitutes an intrusion on the executive,” they said.
They relied heavily on a 1982 decision by the Supreme Court, which tossed out a lawsuit filed against President Nixon by ruling that presidents are immune from lawsuits over even actions at the “outer perimeter” of their official duties. The Trump speech preceding the riot falls into that category, his lawyers said.
In questioning the results of the election during the weeks before Jan. 6 and on that day itself, Trump was exercising a president’s ability to use the bully pulpit and was “engaged in an open discussion and debate about the integrity of the 2020 election,” they said.
“The actions of the rioters do not strip President Trump of immunity,” they added.
In rejecting that same argument in February, Judge Mehta said the rally speech was “akin to telling an excited mob that corn dealers starve the poor in front of the corn dealer’s home.” The judge said a later tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence during the attack on the Capitol suggested a “tacit agreement” with the rioters.
Trump’s actions “do not relate to his duties of faithfully executing the laws, conducting foreign affairs, commanding the armed forces, or managing the Executive Branch,” Mehta said. “They entirely concern his efforts to remain in office for a second term. These are unofficial acts.”
House Democrats were the first to sue the former president. They said the Capitol riot 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.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., was originally the lead plaintiff but withdrew from the case after he became chairman of the House committee investigating the riots. Ten House Democrats remain on the suit. Two other lawsuits were filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and the two police officers. Trump also faces five other civil lawsuits based on similar claims.
Trump’s lawyers asked the appeals court to hear oral argument on their appeal. The lawsuit plaintiffs have not yet responded.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
