US President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks during a rally to contest the certification of the results of the 2020 US presidential election by the US Congress in Washington, USA, on January 6, 2021.
Jim Bourg | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump and his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of plotting to instigate the deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
The lawsuit, filed by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., And 10 other Democrats in the House of Representatives, accuses the defendants of breaking federal Ku Klux Klan law on Jan. 6 by breaking a crowd instigated by Trump supporters to prevent Congress from seeing President Joe. to confirm Biden’s election victory.
Separate motions to dismiss the lawsuit on Thursday argued that Trump and Giuliani’s statements at a rally from the Capitol riot were protected under the First Amendment.
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At the event, Trump had put pressure on Republican lawmakers – as well as then Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the joint session – to reject the election results of the most important states. He urged his followers to march to the Capitol and told the crowd, “If you don’t fight like hell, you will have no more land.”
But Trump’s attorney Jesse Binnall noted at the beginning of his dismissal petition that Trump had also told the audience to “make peaceful and patriotic”. [their voices] belongs.”
The Democrats’ claims “directly violate the absolute immunity” conveyed by the then-President’s Constitution and “do not misrepresent a plausible claim of viable conspiracy theory” against Trump, Binnall said.
Giuliani had called for a “trial in battle” during the rally. But the former New York mayor’s attorney, in his motion to dismiss Thompson’s lawsuit, argued that “no reasonable reader or listener would have taken Giuliani’s speech as an instruction to march to the Capitol, forcibly break through the fencing and enter the Capitol building, and then forcibly close terrorize”. Congress not to participate in the election certificate. “
The conspiracy claim of the Democrats “contradicts any plausibility and credibility at first sight,” wrote Giuliani’s lawyer.
Attorneys representing the Democrats told CNBC that the plaintiffs would advance the lawsuit.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani gestures as he speaks as Trump supporters gather at the White House to confirm the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in Washington, United States, on Aug. To be challenged by the US Congress on January 1, 2021.
Jim Bourg | Reuters
“We will respond to these unsubstantiated motions in due course,” said Joe Sellers, chairman of a civil rights group at law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, and NAACP Interim General Counsel Janette McCarthy Wallace in a joint statement.
But “it is evident that these defendants, who fueled and participated in a riot to prevent Congress from confirming free and fair elections, are trying to avoid any legal responsibility for their extraordinary attack on our democracy.”
“We will continue to move our case and hold them accountable for their attempts to undermine our constitution,” said Sellers and Wallace.
The complaint also names the extremist groups Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Warboys as defendants.
The Oath Keepers filed their own motion Thursday morning to dismiss the case, arguing that Democratic lawmakers lacked “reputation” or the ability to sue for the alleged harm they suffered from the defendants.
The mob broke through the ranks of police in front of the Capitol on January 6, causing hundreds of rioters to poured into the building. They physically assaulted law enforcement agencies, smashed windows, broke into convention offices, demolished the grounds and stole property.
A man shouts as supporters of US President Donald Trump gather outside the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.
Leah Millis | Reuters
The invasion forced a joint session of Congress to evacuate their chambers and hide for their safety, temporarily undoing the legislature’s efforts to uphold Trump’s loss to Biden.
Thompson’s lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Washington in February, accused Trump and Giuliani of “launching a concerted campaign to misinform their supporters and the public, promoting and promoting intimidation and violence in order to promote their joint plan.” to promote the re-election of Defendant Trump, even after states confirmed election results clearly showing that he lost the election. “
That campaign, which included an attempt to prevent Congress from counting the votes of the electoral college on January 6, was carried out to try to prevent Plaintiff Thompson and other members of Congress from confirming that former Vice President Biden won the presidential election. “Said Thompson’s lawsuit.
In April, 10 more House members signed the lawsuit. They are: Reps. Karen Bass, Barbara Lee, and Maxine Waters, all from California; Steve Cohen from Tennessee; Bonnie Watson Coleman from New Jersey; Veronica Escobar from Texas; Hank Johnson Jr. of Georgia; Marcy Kaptur from Ohio; Jerry Nadler from New York; and Pramila Jayapal from Washington.
