WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump is trying—again—to stop the last remaining lawsuit resulting from the Jan. 6, 2021, Trump insurrection and attempted coup d’etat at the U.S. Capitol. This suit is from police officers injured by his 1,600 violent supporters that day.
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly delayed the suit. He’s used that tactic in other cases, challenging the events of the insurrection to “run out the clock” on his accountability for the invasion.
His latest tactic, in a motion filed in U.S. District Court for D.C., is to claim “executive privilege” covers his decisions to let the invasion proceed as well as his incendiary speech on the Ellipse that morning, urging the Proud Boys and other armed invaders to march on the Capitol.
As far as the officers and their lawyers are concerned, that is absurd.
Once there, following his orders—and openly saying they were doing so—the insurrectionists, waving Confederate flags, invaded and pillaged the Capitol, sending lawmakers, reporters, staffers, audience members, and Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives.
One common invader chant: “Hang Mike Pence” because the VP followed the Constitution and rejected Trump’s and the invaders’ demand that Pence nullify electoral votes, thus giving despot Trump a White House win.
The invaders also injured more than 140 police officers, several of whom launched the lawsuit later in 2021. Four officers died, including one by suicide the day after, due to the insurrection.
Trump’s lawyers filed his “executive privilege” motion before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta during the first week of December, promising they would specify, in the week of December 8, which documents and testimony executive privilege covers and which it doesn’t.
But they previously said Trump’s speech to the armed crowd was covered, as he was “acting in his official capacity” and by the U.S. Constitution’s freedom of speech clause. Two years ago, federal courts ruled the lawsuit could go ahead.
This time, a Trump spokeswoman called the officers’ demand for documents, including both the speech and internal communications, “overly broad.”
Since Trump retook the Oval Office, he’s been busy pardoning January 6 participants, including all the invaders and his disbarred attorneys, notably former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The lawsuit seeks files and other communications dealing with White House decision-making, or lack of it, during the invasion.
Officers James Blassingame, Sidney Hemby, and Michael Moore, whose names head the lawsuit, and their lawyers, say his executive privilege claim is yet another Trump smokescreen and attempt to whitewash the insurrection.
Both Blassingame and one of the officers’ lawyers, Kristy Parker of Democracy Forward, said two years ago—when the federal appellate court let their lawsuit go forward—that it’s not just a case of suing for damages for their injuries, but of suing to hold Trump accountable.
“It is unnerving to hear the same fabrications and dangerous rhetoric that put my life as well as the lives of my fellow officers in danger,” from the insurrectionists, Blassingame said then.
“I couldn’t be more committed to pursuing accountability…. I hope our case will assist with helping put our democracy back on the right track, making it crystal clear that no person, regardless of title or position of stature, is above the rule of law.”
“We’re moving one step closer to justice, one step closer to accountability, and one step closer to healing some of the wounds suffered by James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby,” Parker said then. “Our constitutional order does not grant (then) former President Trump with immunity for his attempt to subvert our democracy.”
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