WASHINGTON — A lawsuit seeking to hold Donald Trump personally liable for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol comes after the former president chose not to seek broader immunity from the Supreme Court. There is potential for progress.
President Trump had a Thursday deadline to appeal to the Supreme Court, challenging a December appellate decision that rejected his immunity claim, but did not file.
The Court of Appeals has made it clear that President Trump may seek immunity later in the lawsuit in three lawsuits brought by Capitol Police officers and members of Congress.
“President Trump will continue to fight for presidential immunity on all fronts,” said President Trump's press secretary, Stephen Chan.
The civil suit against Mr. Trump is separate from the criminal case against him, which was also filed on January 6th. On Monday, Trump asked a judge to put the case on hold due to immunity.
Trump's lawyers argued that his actions on January 6 fell within the scope of his responsibilities as president, thereby exempting him from civil liability. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected that argument, ruling that Trump was acting as a political candidate, not as president.
But the court said that as the case progresses in district court, Trump “must be given an opportunity to develop his own facts on the issue of immunity” to show he was acting in an official capacity. added. He may then seek to have the case dismissed again, the court said.
The legal arguments President Trump is making are similar to those he is making in his criminal lawsuit, which seeks to block a trial before the November election.
In rejecting Trump's immunity claim in the criminal case, another panel of judges on the same appeals court did not directly address whether Trump's actions were official. Rather, the court assumed that they were likely official acts and still found that Mr. Trump could not claim his immunity.
The lead plaintiff in the civil immunity lawsuit is James Blasingame, a Capitol Police officer who was injured in the January 6 riot. Fellow plaintiffs in the multiple lawsuits consolidated by the appeals court include other police officers and members of Congress who were at the Capitol that day.
