Capitol Police Officers Sue Trump and Far-Right Extremists Over January 6 Insurrection Plot
Seven Capitol police officers accuse Trump and many of his supporters of a concerted plot to disrupt the 2020 inauguration and transfer of power.
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A group of seven Capitol Police officers has filed a lawsuit accusing former President Donald J. Trump and nearly 20 members of far-right extremist groups and political organizations of a plot to disrupt the peaceful transition of power during the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, reports the New York Times. The suit implicates members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers militia and Trump associates like Roger J. Stone Jr., and is the first to allege that Trump worked in concert with both far-right extremists and political organizers promoting his baseless lies that the presidential election was marred by fraud.
The suit is also the first time that the seven plaintiffs, five of whom are Black, offered details of their ordeal and contends that Trump and his co-defendants violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 statute that includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfere with Congress’s constitutional duties. It also accuses the defendants of committing “bias-motivated acts of terrorism” in violation of District of Columbia law. The suit argues that the conspiracy to disrupt the election started as early as May 2020, when Trump began complaining on social media that mail-in voting could “lead to massive fraud” and accuses Stone, Trump’s longtime aide and ally, of echoing those and other claims, sometimes on right-wing news outlets like Infowars.
