UNEXEMPT: Justice Department paves the way for Jan. 6 police to sue Trump
In response to lawsuits, search warrants, subpoenas, and virtually every other attempt to produce some accountability for the events of and surrounding January 6th, Donald Trump and his allies have claimed that the legal privileges granted to a member of the executive branch amount to an exemption, but in a new filing with the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department just destroyed that argument.
At least ten police officers have filed lawsuits against Trump, seeking to hold him responsible for damages suffered when a mob of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol Building, and one of these lawsuits — this one from two officers and 11 Members of Congress — was presented before the appellate court’s panel in December. The court asked the DOJ to weigh in — and that body, which is still carrying out its own investigations, did so.
The DOJ’s attorneys addressed two major claims in the appeal: the argument that Trump is simply exempt from lawsuits because he was the President of the United States at the time, and the claim that his rally rhetoric ahead of the attack is protected as free speech.
Via the Independent, the filing states:
“Speaking to the public on matters of public concern is a traditional function of the Presidency, and the outer perimeter of the President’s Office includes a vast realm of such speech. But that traditional function is one of public communication. It does not include incitement of imminent private violence.”
