By The newspaper
01 Dec 2023, 17:30 PM EST
Donald Trump does not have sufficient immunity and can be sued civilly for the actions of his followers during the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to the ruling of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals issued on Friday, in a long-awaited decision that could pave the way for lawsuits seeking compensation for damages caused by the former president’s actions.
The Washington DC court noted that Trump acted in his personal capacity, as a presidential candidate, when he urged his followers to protest in front of the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Presidential immunity protects leaders in the United States against civil lawsuits only for official actions.
“When a first-term president chooses to seek a second term, his campaign to win reelection is not an official presidential act,” wrote Chief Justice Sri Srinivasan for the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit“The Office of the Presidency as an institution is agnostic about who will fill it next,” in a writing cited by The Washington Post.
The judges’ decision this Friday, according to The Washington Post, can be appealed, but it could jeopardize Trump’s argument that presidential immunity also protects him from being criminally charged for his efforts to stay in power. after the 2020 elections.
On March 2, the Department of Justice had already considered that Trump could be sued because he did not have immunity from the multiple civil lawsuits filed by police officers and members of Congress seeking to hold him responsible for inciting that assault.
Those lawsuits were filed under a law that prohibits government officials from using force, threats or intimidation and that allows anyone harmed by such actions to be compensated.
Trump and his lawyers, on the other hand, consider that he is protected by presidential immunity and that the speech he gave to his followers on January 6, 2021 was part of his job.
The former Republican president is currently facing four criminal cases: one in Washington and another in Georgia for electoral interference in the 2020 elections, another in New York for falsification of business records and one in Miami for having taken classified documents from the White House when leaving the office. can.
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