Posted on 03/02/2023 12:24:37 PM PST by thegagline
Former President Donald Trump can be sued by injured Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department said Thursday in a federal court case testing Trump’s legal vulnerability and the limits of executive power.
The department wrote that although a president enjoys broad legal latitude to communicate to the public on matters of concern, “no part of a President’s official responsibilities includes the incitement of imminent private violence. By definition, such conduct plainly falls outside the President’s constitutional and statutory duties.” *** The Justice Department wrote that it also takes no view on a lower court judge’s conclusion that those who sued Trump have “plausibly” alleged that his speech caused the riot. Nevertheless, the department said that an appeals court should reject Trump’s claim that he’s immune from the lawsuits.
The Justice Department cautioned that the “court must take care not to adopt rules that would unduly chill legitimate presidential communication” or saddle a president with meritless lawsuits.
“In exercising their traditional communicative functions, Presidents routinely address controversial issues that are the subject of passionate feelings. Presidents may at times use strong rhetoric. And some who hear that rhetoric may overreact, or even respond with violence,” the department wrote.
*** U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Trump’s words during a rally before the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol were likely “words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment.”
The lawsuits, filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby, and later joined by other House Democrats, argue that Trump and others made “false and incendiary allegations of fraud and theft, and in direct response to the Defendant’s express calls for violence at the rally, a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol.”
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Trump should demand all the January 6th surveillance videos in discovery.
That will shut them up quick.
Well you can sue anybody for anything. Disclosure ought to be entertaining
The “justice department”...????? PHONY!
The pubs were doing great specches in front of Merrick Garland the other day, meanwhile he’s laughing at them.
If Trump can be sued for J6, many Dem politicians and journalists can be sued for inciting and supporting the BLM rioting.
You want a have a trial.......go for it. Bring it on bitches, let’s get this over with!
Just more proof our worthless government is CRIMINAL!!!
The “Just Us” Department.
Trump has sovereign immunity because he was president at the time.
And, it was not an insurrection.
Just the Democrats get to sue? That’s interesting. I thought one of their primary claims has always been that Mike Pence’s life was genuinely in danger.
-PJ
As I’ve been saying for what has turned into years now, he should have been using this time to build up a strong case of SPECIFIC evidence that the election was stolen. He should have used the J6 hearings to begin presenting it, but he listened to McCarthy and boycotted them instead, which was equivalent to pleading No Contest to their charges.
He collected $250M for this exact purpose, but then used that money for other things, so maybe this is his just reward. That may infuriate some here, but save your anger for Trump who handled this situation horribly. Just use the money for what it was donated for, and what people expected, to prove voter fraud, not all these silly rallies and protests to try to build his image as a fighter, instead of actually fighting, so it has all backfired.
He triggered mmmeeeee!!!
So this means Pelosi can be sued. She was in charge. The capital police can be sued by the families of the 2 innocent people murdered by them. Pelosi covered it up. The hundreds of people jailed can sue as well as this was all a setup.
The not_Justice Dept should use their “Hillary Test”... since no reasonable jury would convict, drop the matter! Mr. Comey can be reached if you need an expert on the “Hillary Test”.
Discovery would be interesting.
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