December 1, 2023
Former President Trump does not have presidential immunity when it comes to his actions January 6th and private citizens can civilly sue him for the damages they suffered.
That’s the unanimous ruling that was issued today from a federal appeals court. We have been waiting on this ruling for almost a year.
Now this ruling does not mean the former president is guilty of anything – this ruling just says organizations like the Capitol Police officers, and members of Congress can move forward with their civil lawsuits against him.
There are several lawsuits pending – one was filed back in 2021 by two Capitol Police officers and others were filed in the same year by about a dozen members of congress. All of them are seeking damages for the emotional distress and the physical injuries they received during the riot at the Capitol. Their lawsuits cite a law that bars the use of force, threats or intimidation to prevent government officials from carrying out their duties and allows anyone injured by such actions to collect damages. The plaintiffs were arguing trump violated that statue in several ways including by conspiring with far-right groups to keep lawmakers from confirming Joe Biden’s election victory.
Now – Trump and his lawyers argued that he is protected from all of this because of the absolute immunity given to a President of the United States for anything done as part of his official duties. This question that the appellate judges were weighing was whether or not Trump’s repeated claims that the election was stolen and telling his supporters to “fight like hell” during the January 6th speech crossed the line into non-official presidential duties.
This appeals court in its 67-page ruling today — unanimously said it did — citing the Supreme Court case law that says a President’s immunity by nature does not extend to his unofficial actions and when he acts in his private capacity he can be subject to civil lawsuits. The appellate judges said a president’s actions to seek re-election are not part of the official acts of the presidency. They said “campaigning to gain that office are not an official act of the office.” The three-judge panel who heard this case was out of the Washington DC appellate court and was made up of the chief judge appointed by former President Obama, a senior circuit judge appointed by former President Clinton and one judge appointed by former President Trump.
Keep in mind – these are not criminal cases. These are civil cases. They are seeking financial awards from trump through the court system. But the subject matter in the civil suits does sound a lot like some of the criminal charges trump is facing in the federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
It is very likely the former president is going to appeal this decision all the way to the Supreme Court.
Read the DC Appellate Court ruling here.
