Newsman: Former President Donald Trump argued in a federal appeals court filing Thursday that he deserves immunity from three civil lawsuits that seek to blame him for the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
Donald Trump hasn’t been charged criminally in the attack, but the civil lawsuits seek to hold him responsible for inciting the violence that left a rioter shot to death and 140 police officers injured.
Trump is a defendant in three civil lawsuits from Democratic House members and Capitol police, who accuse him of inciting the attack. His court filing came two weeks after the Justice Department said he isn’t protected from the lawsuits because of the accusation he incited violence.
Trump’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, told a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals there was no “incitement” in Trump’s speech near the White House Jan. 6, 2021, before a mob of supporters stormed the Capitol. Binnall argued Trump’s exhortation to “fight” was a reference to political pressure.
“First, President Trump’s speech falls well within the broad scope of absolute immunity suggested by DOJ,” Binnall wrote. “Absolute immunity aims to prevent the President from being subjected to the process of civil litigation.”
“No part of a President’s official responsibilities includes the incitement of imminent private violence,” department lawyers said. “By definition, such conduct plainly falls outside the President’s constitutional and statutory duties.”
The lawmakers and police officers also filed an argument in the case Thursday, agreeing with the Justice Department but arguing against a sweeping view of presidential immunity other than for inciting violence. The litigants argued Trump was outside his official duties as a “clear and present danger” in urging supporters to block roads to Congress or forge Electoral College ballots.
“Although correct as far as it goes, the position of the United States does not go far enough,” lawyers for the lawmakers and police said. Trump doesn’t deserve immunity because “a president has no business instructing his supporters at any time to obstruct Congress’s efforts to fulfill its certification responsibilities,” the litigants added.
