Trump cites 'extraordinary public moment' in demand for 'indefinite' delay in Jan. 6 lawsuits
Source: Law & Crime
Apr 3rd, 2024, 1:28 pm
In a brief expanding on why U.S. lawmakers must be halted indefinitely from suing Donald Trump for allegedly violating the Ku Klux Klan Act on Jan. 6, 2021, by whipping up a mob, attorneys for the former president invoked the “extraordinary public moment” Trump finds himself in as he fends off criminal charges tied to the Capitol assault and, in particular, as he and Special Counsel Jack Smith await a significant ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court about his immunity.
The federal civil claim he wishes to now stay first began in 2021. The case of Lee v. Trump, was brought by a number of lawmaker plaintiffs, including Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the former chairman of the now-defunct House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol as well as Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and nine other House members. In addition to Trump, the lawmakers named the since-dissolved Proud Boys organization and its now-imprisoned leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, as the former president’s co-defendant in the lawsuit.
They argue that Trump’s use of intimidation in the run up to the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win, and on Jan. 6 itself, was not part of his official role as president and his conduct directly infringed on their abilities to discharge their official duties. Many of the lawmakers are people of color and it is notable that the statute they are suing under is a Reconstruction era law from 1871 put into place to respond to the predatory practices that the Ku Klux Klan and similar hate-based organizations used to cow members of Congress during that time. Special counsel Jack Smith has also charged Trump under this statute in the criminal case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled last December that Trump was not entitled to “official act immunity” from the lawmakers’ specific claims and when the former president had his chance to appeal that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, he missed the deadline to do so in February. With only so many escape paths left to free himself of the lawmakers lawsuit, the April 2 reply brief to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta pits the former president’s looming — but also delayed — criminal trial in Washington, D.C., against this matter while simultaneously pitting both against the certainty of what the U.S. Supreme Court will say — or how fast they will say it — once oral arguments on his immunity question are held on April 25.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/trump-cites-extraordinary-public-moment-in-demand-for-indefinite-delay-in-jan-6-lawsuits/
Link to Brief (PDF reader) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24529951-barbara-lee-v-trump-april-2-reply-in-support-of-defendant-trump-motion-for-stay
Link to Brief (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24529951/barbara-lee-v-trump-april-2-reply-in-support-of-defendant-trump-motion-for-stay.pdf
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
"Phew"
And now back to my regular night of
Relaxation. 👍
