It would appear that the decision to categorically blame Nancy Pelosi for the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol was a really bad idea and has backfired tremendously — although I don’t know if that is what motivated the lawsuit that was filed this morning in federal District Court in Washington, D.C. by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and the NAACP. Due to the short time frame between Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes starting their Benghazi-esque disinformation campaign against Pelosi and the filing of this suit, I speculate not. But definitely the two are related. Congressman Thompson and the NAACP are suing Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol riot, in violation of a Reconstruction Era law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. The lawsuit also names Rudy Giuliani and two white supremacist groups, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. Washington Post:
The Klan Act was devised in 1871 to counter civil unrest during Reconstruction. It could be used now to collect damages from the president and his enablers for the abusive conduct here. Members of Congress, their staffs and even Capitol police officers, among others, may have claims — they can sue for emotional or mental distress or any other injury.
Trump could of course still be subject to criminal prosecution, but the Biden administration, if it goes that route at all, may do so only on narrow grounds, not commensurate with the scope of the conspiracy and all the potential actors, like Rudy Giuliani, who worked for weeks to overturn the election, an effort that resulted in a deadly assault mounted on the Capitol. Discovery in a civil case, when not privileged under the Fifth Amendment, can bring much information to light. And the burden of proof in a civil case is less than what the federal government would have to show in a criminal prosecution.
For what Trump attempted, one provision of the Ku Klux Klan Act seems made to order. Section 1985(1) of Title 42 authorizes damages against anyone — including Trump, Giuliani and others — who conspires to “prevent by force, intimidation or threat any person from accepting any office [or] trust … under the United States, or discharging any duties therefor …” Any person targeted for assault or intimidation arising from that conspiracy may sue. Even before Trump’s infamous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, even before inciting the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, many people had standing to bring these claims.
This is what Congressman Thompson told ABC News:
“The Defendants each intended to prevent, and ultimately delayed, members of Congress from discharging their duty commanded by the United States Constitution to approve the results of the Electoral College in order to elect the next President and Vice President of the United States,” the lawsuit said. “Pursuing a purpose shared by Defendants Trump and Giuliani as well as Defendant Proud Boys, Defendant Oath Keepers played a leadership role of the riotous crowd and provided military-style assistance sufficient to overcome any Capitol Police resistance.”
This is so on point. And it’s going to be so much more effective than a federal case, which the Biden administration may be reluctant to bring, for obvious reasons.
With the benefit of not having to prove criminal allegations beyond a reasonable doubt, the civil lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on behalf of Thompson in his personal capacity by the NAACP and civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, sought unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. The lawsuit is suing Trump in his personal capacity, alleging that he acted outside the scope of his office when inciting the rioters.
And it’s not just the riot that’s at issue here, by any means. Trump’s and Giuliani’s actions in Georgia were utterly despicable. He was begged to call off his supporters, both in Georgia and when the Capitol riot began and he wouldn’t. As Mitch McConnell put it, “He happily — happily — watched it all on television.”
The entire Ku Klux Klan Act was originally intended as a guard against a political coup or rampage by the Klan in South Carolina against newly freed Black Americans and various elected officials. But President Ulysses Grant’s administration relied on the so-called Force Acts passed by Congress at the time; under these acts, as the historian Eric Foner wrote in “A Short History of Reconstruction,” the federal government did largely succeed by criminal prosecutions and other measures to break the Klan in South Carolina, at least for a time. All the civil provisions in the Klan Act, on the other hand, went largely unused — until discovered and taken up by civil rights lawyers in the 1950s and ’60s. Today, suits are common against state and local governments under Section 1983 — for wrongs like police brutality or violations of the First Amendment. Section 1985(3) is also in use, though far less often, largely for race-based conspiracies.
But Trump’s attempted coup has now made relevant Section 1985(1) and given rise to a good-size list of those who could sue. They start with the slates of Biden electors whom Trump conspired to “prevent … by intimidation” from taking their rightful place in the electoral college, which is an “office [or] trust under the United States.” It is true enough that Trump and his lawyers and GOP enablers did not prevent the state election officials from certifying the electors. It is also true that Trump did not directly send anonymous email or online death threats — but the threats that the electors directly received from Trump’s supporters were more than just foreseeable by Trump, Giuliani and others. Those threats were occurring every day without Trump letting up at all. Even when state election officials in Georgia begged him to call off his supporters or someone would be killed or shot, he refused to do so.
People did finally get shot. People did finally get killed. And now it looks like Trump and Giuliani and their band of thugs is going to be held accountable. Hallelujah.
This is great. The more lawsuits the better, not just for obvious justice but also to keep Trumpler off-balance & so pre-occupied that any ideas of renewed political campaigns will fade from possibility. And where’s he going to find lawyers willing to defend him, given that he lies & doesn’t pay his bills?
I was just thinking that a few minutes ago. Who is going to want to defend this? Van der Veen?
LOL, I imagine it may lawyers of that level of quality. too funny
I couldn’t agree more. This law is a perfect fit for the crimes committed. I’m thinking it shouldn’t take much convincing of a judge or jury in this case.
It is so on point. I commend whomever put this lawsuit and this strategy together.
Too bad. Not. The more the merrier. If Trump and Fools throw poop on the wall, then release the lawsuits!!
And they literally threw poop at the walls in the Capitol. When I read about that, I felt sick. I never thought this country would get that deranged. But that’s what Trump did. He played the outsider and made it okay for rabble to walk into the Capitol and deface and disgrace it.
Sometimes monkeys flinging shit is a apt metaphor for these assclowns. In fact I’ve seen it used to describe them a few times. On January 6 they actually made it a disgusting, appalling reality.
I once again raise my glass to U.S. Grant, an often-forgotten and frequently maligned President who may have just saved the Union yet again through an act that is as pivotal as any done by the Founding Fathers. Gee, I wonder why modern Republicans don’t ever acknowledge him?
The age he lived in was so similar to this one. Grant said, “There are only two parties now, patriots and traitors” or words to that effect. So true.
To say nothing, Ursula, of the level of violence that surpassed our own era’s. What I love about the man is a)his steadfast integrity, as demonstrated by letting himself get a speeding ticket on the DC streets (by one of its first black police officers, no less!) and b)his grim determination to finish what he started, be it the Civil War or his memoirs.
Weird, but yesterday the History Channel re-ran a series on Grant starting from the beginning with him. I’d seen it before so I didn’t watch it all again but tuned in a couple of times and saw part of the time when he was President and his crushing the first iteration of the Klan goobers. The Ku Klux Klan Act was mentioned and it got me to thinking of the ways Hoover went after them. Yes, J. Edgar Hoover. He didn’t do it for the right reasons of course. He hated King and the whole Civil Rights movement BUT he loved the FBI. It was his baby and he thought his creation and his agents were the greatest thing ever and worthy of reverence. Agents down there coming home to wives who were terrified of threatening phone calls pissed Hoover off. Same with the goobers outright challenging the authority of his agents and the FBI itself. That’s why Hoover decided to go after the Klan and he crippled them for a generation. Even longer now that I think about it. So it got me to thinking that maybe some folks smarter than me might already be looking at our history and how we dealt with this kind of domestic terrorism before and what laws we already had on the books that might allow for going at them right away. Turns out smarter people than me were in fact already on the case. I don’t mind passing new legislation that updates our capabilities into the cyber-age, especially since advancements in technology have outpaced traditional law enforcement’s ability to keep up and of course do so while respecting civil liberties. But we’ve done it in the past so we know it can be done. It won’t be an easier than before, but with enough will from leadership it can be done.