By Steve Neavling
Capitol Police officers injured in the Jan. 6, 2021, siege on the Capitol can sue former President Trump for allegedly inciting violence, the Justice department said Thursday in a federal court case.
The Justice Department rejected Trump’s arguments that he is immune from the claims and alerted a federal appeals court in Washington that it should allow the lawsuits to continue, the Associated Press reports.
In the court filing, the DOJ wrote that “no part of a President’s official responsibilities includes the incitement of imminent private violence. By definition, such conduct plainly falls outside the President’s constitutional and statutory duties.”
The Justice Department also said it takes no position on whether Trump’s speech caused the riot. A lower court ruled that the lawsuits, filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby, “plausibly” alleged that Trump incited the riot.
“In exercising their traditional communicative functions, Presidents routinely address controversial issues that are the subject of passionate feelings. Presidents may at times use strong rhetoric. And some who hear that rhetoric may overreact, or even respond with violence,” the department wrote.
The lawsuit argues that Trump and others 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.”
