Trump faces civil lawsuits over Capitol storm
In January 2021, radical supporters of former US President Donald Trump storm the Capitol, leaving people dead and injured. Trump is now facing several civil lawsuits over the act of violence.
A US appeals court has allowed civil lawsuits against former President Donald Trump over the violent storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The federal appeals court in the capital Washington rejected Trump's argument that he enjoyed absolute immunity due to his presidential office at the time.
"A president does not spend every minute of every day performing official duties," the court ruling states. "And when he acts outside the duties of his office, he does not enjoy immunity from claims for damages simply because he is the president." Trump could appeal against the court decision.
The background to this are civil lawsuits brought against Trump by two police officers and several members of parliament from the Democratic Party. They hold the then president partly responsible for the violence on January 6, 2021 and are demanding compensation.
"Not a presidential act"
Radical Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol to prevent Democrat Joe Biden from being confirmed as the winner of the November 2020 presidential election. Shortly before the attack, Republican Trump had called on his supporters to march to the Capitol and fight "come hell or high water". The incumbent, who was voted out of office, had previously falsely claimed for weeks that he had been deprived of re-election by massive electoral fraud.
Trump now argues that his statements on the 2020 election were part of his duties as president. The right-wing populist, who wants to run again in the presidential election in a year's time, claims that he enjoys immunity for all his statements during his presidency.
However, the Federal Court of Appeal in Washington rejected this claim on Friday. A distinction had to be made between official presidential duties and actions outside the scope of duties. For example, an incumbent president's campaign for re-election is "not an official presidential act", the judges wrote. An election campaign speech is also not an exercise of the official duties of a president. "He is then acting as a candidate for office, not as the holder of an office."
"Incitement to private violence"
The US Department of Justice had already argued similarly in March in a statement on the case. Although a president enjoys immunity for actions in the exercise of his office, he can be sued for actions that are clearly outside the scope of his official duties. "Incitement to imminent private violence" is not the duty of a president, the ministry explained.
The question of Trump's possible immunity does not only arise in the civil proceedings against the ex-president over the Capitol storming. The 77-year-old is also claiming immunity in the criminal proceedings at federal level against Trump for his attempts to hold on to power after his election defeat in 2020. The special prosecutor in charge of the case, Jack Smith, who brought charges against Trump in August, rejects this. A court decision is still pending in the criminal proceedings.
Source: www.ntv.de
