Judge rejects effort by Trump to toss Capitol riot lawsuits
A U.S. federal judge on Friday rejected efforts by Donald Trump to toss out conspiracy lawsuits filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers, saying in his ruling that the former U.S. president’s words “plausibly” led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta said in his ruling that Trump’s words during a rally before the violent storming of the Capitol were likely “words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment.”
“Only in the most extraordinary circumstances could a court not recognize that the First Amendment protects a president’s speech,” Mehta wrote. “But the court believes this is that case.”
The order is the latest example of growing legal peril for Trump. Just hours earlier, the National Archives said records found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort contained classified information and that it had notified the Justice Department.
On Thursday, a judge in New York ruled that Trump and two of his children must answer questions under oath in New York state’s civil investigation into his business practices. Another judge ordered that his company’s financial chief be subjected to questioning in another probe by the D.C. attorney general’s office.
And this week, the firm that prepared Trump’s annual financial statements said the documents, used to secure lucrative loans and burnish Trump’s image as a wealthy businessman, “should no longer be relied upon.”
During a planned rally just hours before Congress was to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, Trump told his supporters to “Fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
He said, “(We’re) going to try to and give (weak Republicans) the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country,” and then told the crowd to “walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Mehta said Trump’s speech could have directed people to break the law. But the judge dismissed similar charges made against Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and lawyer Rudy Giuliani, saying their speech was protected by the First Amendment.
Mehta did not yet rule on another motion to dismiss from Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, also named in the suits.
The lawsuits, filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell, officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby and initially by Rep. Bennie Thompson, argued that Trump, Trump Jr., Giuliani and Brooks made “false and incendiary allegations of fraud and theft, and in direct response to the defendant’s express calls for violence at the rally, a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol.”
Thompson dropped out of the lawsuit when he was named to lead the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. The NAACP continued in his stead. The lawsuits cite federal civil rights law that was enacted to counter the Ku Klux Klan’s intimidation of officials.