WASHINGTON — Former president Donald Trump on Friday lost his effort to get a set of lawsuits tossed out that seek to hold him responsible for the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, with a judge rejecting Trump’s claims of absolute immunity and protection under the First Amendment.
In a 112-page opinion, US District Judge Amit Mehta found that it was “plausible” to allege that Trump would have known that his supporters — including members of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups named as his codefendants — were prepared to commit violence on his behalf, and that on Jan. 6 he delivered a “call to action.”
Sitting presidents are generally immune from being sued for their official actions, the judge wrote, but Trump’s tweets urging his supporters to come to Washington to support his false claims of voter fraud, followed by his rally speech urging the crowd to “fight” and telling them to go to the Capitol, did not fall under that umbrella.
“Based on these allegations, it is reasonable to infer that before January 6th the President would have known about the power of his words and that, when asked, some of his supporters would do as he wished. On January 6th they did so,” Mehta wrote. “When he called on them to march to the Capitol, some responded, ‘Storm the Capitol.’ Thousands marched down Pennsylvania Avenue as directed. And, when some were inside the Capitol, they told officers, ‘We were invited here by the President of the United States.’”
The ruling, which...
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