Capitol Police officers sue Trump, allies over election lies, Jan. 6 riot
Seven U.S. Capitol Police officers on Thursday sued former president Donald Trump and more than a dozen alleged participants in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, saying the defendants are responsible for the officers being “violently assaulted, spat on, tear-gassed, bear-sprayed, subjected to racial slurs and epithets, and put in fear for their lives.”
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleges that Mr. Trump, by falsely claiming the presidential election was rigged, incited a mob of his supporters to storm the Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s victory.
The complaint describes an array of abuse endured by the seven officers, who collectively “have dedicated more than 150 years” to protecting Congress “so that it can carry out its constitutional responsibilities safely and openly.”
While hundreds of demonstrators besieged the historic building, many of them armed with bludgeons, cans of noxious spray and other weapons, the lawsuit says, Mr. Trump “reportedly was watching live television coverage” and “refused to call off the attackers, whom he had personally directed to the Capitol just moments before.”
The complaint says Mr. Trump and other defendants, including the former president’s longtime friend Roger Stone, “encouraged and supported acts of violence, knowing full well that among his supporters were such groups and individuals as the Proud Boys, who had demonstrated their propensity to use violence” against Trump critics.
Representatives for Mr. Trump did not respond to a request for comment, but his lawyers in similar lawsuits have argued he has absolute immunity from lawsuits over official actions taken while he was in office and his comments are shielded by the First Amendment. A spokesman for Mr. Trump has also said the president did not plan or organize the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse that preceded the riot or incite or conspire to incite violence at the Capitol.
In a statement via text, Stone called the lawsuit “baseless” and a textbook example of political harassment because it requires those sued to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend themselves.
“The basic premise of today’s frivolous civil suit is deeply flawed. I never instructed anyone to hurt people at the Capitol, let alone a police officer, on Jan. 6 or at any other time, nor did I conspire to deprive anyone of their civil rights,” Stone said. He again called “categorically false” any claim that he “had any involvement in, or knowledge of, the commission of any unlawful acts by any person or group” in Washington that day.
The case, filed on the officers’ behalf by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, is similar to lawsuits filed separately against Mr. Trump this year by lawmakers including Reps. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. Those civil actions also accuse Mr. Trump of being responsible for violence allegedly planned and carried out in large part by such farright groups as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. Mr. Thompson in July dropped out of his case against Mr. Trump because he was selected chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate the Capitol attack and wanted to avoid the “appearance of a conflict,” but 10 other lawmakers continue as co-plaintiffs.
Numerous members of those groups and another extremist organization, the Three Percenters, have been criminally charged in the Jan. 6 riot, and the police officers’ lawsuit names more than a dozen charged individuals as defendants. The lawsuit defendants also include the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers organizations — which have also asked a judge to toss out a lawsuit making similar claims and have said members did not plan to enter the Capitol.