EFE
March 2, 2023
Washington, (EFE).- The United States Department of Justice considered this Thursday that the former president of the country Donald Trump (2017-2021) can be sued for having incited the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
According to a brief from the Justice Department’s civil law division registered today in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and collected by the US media, Trump “does not have absolute immunity” from civil lawsuits filed by police officers and members of Congress who seek hold him responsible for the physical and psychological damage suffered by those events.
The Justice Department lawyers understand that the official responsibilities of the president do not include incitement to violence, such as the one that took place on January 6 in the speech that Trump gave to a crowd in front of the White House, when in Congress, the victory in the presidential elections of Democrat Joe Biden was officially ratified.
A panel of three judges from the Court of Appeals must decide whether three multiple lawsuits filed by police officers and congressmen once morest the former president, whom they accuse of having incited the events of January 6, 2021, can go ahead.
Said panel heard the oral arguments of this case in December but also asked the Justice Department for its opinion, included in the document registered today and that it considers that the condition of Trump’s president at the time of the assault does not give him immunity from these lawsuits.
Trump has asked to dismiss lawsuits
The former president’s lawyers asked the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to dismiss the lawsuits on the grounds that the speech Trump gave that day in front of the White House was part of his job.
They argued that the president is “undoubtedly immune” from any civil liability when delivering a speech on a “matter of public concern.”
But Justice Department lawyers refuted that theory in their document on Thursday.
Thus, they recognized that speaking regarding an issue that concerns society is indeed part of the “traditional function” of the president, but, they stressed, said function “does not include incitement to imminent violence,” such as the one that occurred following his speech with the assault on Congress by hundreds of supporters of the then president.
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