Fresh off of the latest impeachment failure, one House Democrat has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, accusing the former president of inciting the so-called insurrection at the Capitol building on January 6. Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, is suing Trump and Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani, alleging that they conspired to keep Congress from approving the results of the disputed federal election of November 3, 2020.
The NAACP reportedly filed the lawsuit on Thompson’s behalf, using the civil rights lawfirm of Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll. According to a statement from the NAACP: “Other members of Congress, including Representatives Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), intend to join the litigation as plaintiffs in the coming days and weeks.”
“I am privileged to partner with the NAACP to have my day in court so that the perpetrators of putting members of Congress at risk can be held accountable,” Thompson told reporters on Tuesday.
Also named in the suit as conspirators are two conservative organizations, the Proud Boys International and Oath Keepers. Thompson seeks unspecified compensatory damages and punitive damages to “punish the Defendants for the reckless and malicious manner in which they acted and to enjoin and deter a recurrence of this unlawful conduct.”
Thompson and his attorneys are citing the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, which, according to court documents, was meant to impede those who “sought to prevent Members of Congress from discharging their official duties.” The statute was enacted in response to violence and intimidation in which the Ku Klux Klan and other organizations were engaged during that time period.
And, of course, citing that specific act works to make the former president and his alleged “conspirators” look racist by linking them to the Ku Klux Klan.
“All I wanted was to do my job, and the insurrection that occurred prevented me from doing that,” Thompson told reporters after the lawsuit was announced.
Trump advisor Jason Miller answered for the former president in a statement: “President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse. President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
But according to the lawsuit, “The insurrection at the Capitol was a direct, intended, and foreseeable result of the Defendants’ unlawful conspiracy.”
Historically, presidents are given broad immunity from lawsuits for actions they take in their role as commander in chief. However, Thompson and his attorneys argue that Trump’s statements regarding election irregularities up to and including January 6 had no attachment to his duties as president, therefore making him a viable target for a lawsuit. “Inciting a riot, or attempting to interfere with the congressional efforts to ratify the results of the election that are commended by the Constitution, could not conceivably be within the scope of ordinary responsibilities of the president,” said Joseph Sellers, a lawyer for Thompson.
“In this respect, because of his conduct, he is just like any other private citizen,” Sellers added.
The lawsuit lays out, in an extremely biased and left-wing way, the events leading from the November election up to and including the events of January 6. The suit also brings up Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s post-impeachment acquittal remarks. Remarks that, according to the law firm engaged by Thompson and the NAACP, “openly encouraged litigation against Trump.”
“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while in office, as an ordinary citizen, unless the statute of limitations has run, still liable for everything he did while in office, didn’t get away with anything yet — yet.” McConnell, who ultimately vote to acquit Trump in the impeachment, said. “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune to being held accountable by either one.”
With friends like McConnell, who needs enemies?
The lawsuit is the first against Trump since his acquittal in the post-presidency impeachment circus. Many more lawsuits are expected — distractions meant to make the former president look racist and irresponsible, and probably also to keep him from participating in the 2022 GOP attempt to retake Congress from the Democrats.
The Thompson case and the other expected lawsuits will also be a message to others who might think to stand up against the leftist deep state orthodoxy. That message? “Cross us, and we’ll destroy you.”
