Donal Trump suffered another major defeat on Friday after a federal judge rejected the former president’s argument that he has absolute immunity from legal consequences for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and ruled that Trump must face multiple civil lawsuits seeking to hold him liable for the dealy insurrection.
In a 112-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta issued a rejected Trump’s efforts to dismiss the lawsuits, saying he was trying to strike a careful balance in respecting the legal shield afforded to sitting presidents’ official acts.
But Mehta ruled that Trump could be sued for helping to incite the riot at the Capitol last year, because his efforts to undermine the 2020 election results, including his speech at the “Stop the Steal” rally just before the Capitol was breached, could not be considered official acts.
“After all, the President’s actions here do not relate to his duties of faithfully executing the laws, conducting foreign affairs, commanding the armed forces, or managing the Executive Branch,” Mehta wrote, according to The Hill. “They entirely concern his efforts to remain in office for a second term. These are unofficial acts, so the separation-of-powers concerns that justify the President’s broad immunity are not present here.”
Mehta also rejected Trump’s legal argument that the comments he made when he ordered his supporters to march to the Capitol were protected under the First Amendment from the civil suits, finding that there’s reasonable evidence that suggests the then-president had incited a mob that day.
The devastating ruling clears the way for a set of cases brought by U.S. Capitol Police officers and Democratic House members. One was filed by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House Jan. 6 Select Committee, and another by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).
As noted by The Hill, “the civil suits all brought claims against Trump under the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, a civil rights law that prohibits conspiracies against the federal government or to deprive people of their rights.”
