Trump and Giuliani ask judge to drop Capitol riot conspiracy case
- Former President Donald Trump and his onetime personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to incite the deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
- Lawyers for Trump and Giuliani on Thursday argued that their clients' incendiary remarks at a pre-riot rally near the Capitol were protected under the First Amendment.
- The lawsuit also names as defendants the extremist groups the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and Warboys.
Former President Donald Trump and his onetime personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to incite the deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
The lawsuit, brought by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and 10 other House Democrats, accuses the defendants of violating the federal Ku Klux Klan Act on Jan. 6 by fomenting a mob of Trump's supporters to stop Congress from confirming President Joe Biden's electoral victory.
Separate motions to dismiss the suit on Thursday argued that Trump's and Giuliani's remarks at a pre-riot rally near the Capitol were protected under the First Amendment.
Trump at that event had heaped pressure on Republican lawmakers — as well as then-Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the joint session — to reject key states' electoral results. He called on his followers to march to the Capitol, and told the crowd, "If you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country anymore."
But Trump's lawyer Jesse Binnall noted at the top of his dismissal request that Trump had also told the audience to "peacefully and patriotically make [their voices] heard."
Democrats' claims "directly contravene the absolute immunity" conveyed by the Constitution on the then-president and "fail to plausibly plead any viable conspiracy theory" against Trump, Binnall said.
Giuliani during the rally had called for "trial by combat." But the former New York mayor's lawyer argued in his motion to dismiss Thompson's lawsuit that "no reasonable reader or listener would have perceived Giuliani's speech as an instruction to march to the Capitol, violently breach the perimeter and enter the Capitol building, and then violently terrorize Congress into not engaging in the Electoral Certification.
The Democrats' conspiracy claim "defies all plausibility and believability on its face," Giuliani's lawyer wrote.
The lawsuit also names as defendants the extremist groups the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and Warboys.
The Oath Keepers filed their own motion to dismiss the case Thursday morning, arguing that the Democratic lawmakers lack "standing," or the ability to sue based on the alleged injury they have received by the defendants.
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