A federal lawsuit alleges that former President Donald Trump, his lawyer and far-right extremists in the US Capitol conspired to deprive Americans of their civil rights by disrupting the count of Joe Biden’s victory in the electoral university with the January 6 riot. .
Lawyers for the NAACP, which filed the lawsuit earlier this year on behalf of Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), will file a modified complaint on Wednesday adding 10 new plaintiffs, two people familiar with the matter. The new plaintiffs will include other members of Congress, and the amended complaint is said to include additional information about the deadly January 6 riot in Washington, DC, which then-President Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani are accused of inciting. according to sources. added.
The incorporation of new plaintiffs was the first reported per The New York Times on Tuesday.
Thompson’s lawsuit, originally filed in February, accuses Trump of violating the Ku Klux Klan law of more than a century of 1871, which makes the federal crime “conspiracy to prevent, by force, intimidation or threat” from officials taking office. or exercising their official functions.
Thompson named the far-right groups The Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys as defendants on the side and alleged conspirators alongside Trump.
Trump appointed Jesse Binnall, a veteran of his campaign’s legal team and former National Security Adviser General Mike Flynn’s defense team, to represent him in the lawsuit.
The expansion of Thompson’s demand comes as Trump’s post-presidential legal problems escalate, even at a time when his party and the Conservative movement have tried to move from the revolt and the deaths caused by the insurrection on January 6 as quickly as possible.
On January 6, two Capitol police officers, James Blassingame and James Hemby, filed a federal lawsuit against Trump for injuries resulting from his service at the U.S. Capitol, the two officers, both veterans of the Capitol Police for more than a decade. they claim Trump “inflamed, encouraged, incited, directed and helped and encouraged” the “insurrectionary crowd” that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 and caused injuries to both men.
Blassingame says he has suffered headaches and back pain as well as episodes of depression as a result of his service during the attack, and Hemby says he is in the care of an orthopedist. for head and back injuries from riots.
Trump has not yet responded to the lawsuit or identified a lawyer to represent him in that lawsuit.
The former president also faces a lawsuit from Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who has accused Trump, his son Don Jr. and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) of having participated in a civil rights conspiracy allegedly inculcating the January 6 riot.
All of the lawsuits are part of a growing parade of criminal investigations and lawsuits filed on a variety of issues that have haunted Trump, his family, his business empire and his associates in the months following the conclusion of his lawsuit. presidency. In recent weeks, the former president has privately understood that his enemies will be investigating and “suing me for the rest of my life.”