Despite Donald Trump being acquitted by the Senate following his second impeachment trial, the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building has left him exposed to civil and criminal liability now that he’s out of office. On Tuesday, the there was significant movement on that front as Mississippi Congressman Bennie Thompson filed a federal lawsuit accusing Trump and Rudy Giuliani of violating the Ku Klux Klan Act by conspiring with the Oathkeepers and Proud Boys ahead of the Capitol insurrection. The post-Civil War act was passed during Reconstruction to combat the white supremacist group or anyone who uses “force, intimidation, or threat” to prevent elected officials from performing their civic duties, which was exactly the point of the Trump’s “Stop the Steal” coup attempt. Via CNN:
“As part of this unified plan to prevent the counting of Electoral College votes,” the lawsuit states, “Defendants Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, through their leadership, acted in concert to spearhead the assault on the Capitol while the angry mob that Defendants Trump and Giuliani incited descended on the Capitol. The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence. It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College.”
Thompson’s lawsuit arrives directly on the heels of a scathing op-ed from The Wall Street Journal that declared Trump’s political career is over following the January 6 insurrection. The Editorial Board predicted that his acquittal in the Senate would have no affect on criminal or civil proceedings coming down the road from the attempted MAGA coup, and not even a day later, that is exactly what’s coming to pass.
(Via CNN)