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The Department of Justice on Thursday argued that former President Donald Trump can be legally sued for urging supporters at a “Stop the Steal” rally outside the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, to march on the U.S. Capitol Building as Congress was certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

As reported by the Washington Post, attorneys for the DOJ’s Civil Division wrote:

Speaking to the public on matters of public concern is a traditional function of the Presidency, and the outer perimeter of the President’s Office includes a vast realm of such speech. But that traditional function is one of public communication. It does not include incitement of imminent private violence.

Two Capitol Police officers and 11 House Democrats joined in a lawsuit to hold Trump liable for physiological and physical effects they allegedly suffered from the riot. (Ashli Babbitt was unavailable for comment.)

An appeals court remained undecided in December on whether Trump was acting within his official duties when he held the rally that preceded the riot. The court asked the DOJ to give an opinion on the case, while Trump has argued he has absolute immunity that protects him from being sued.

Here’s more, via WaPo:

The lawsuit was filed under a statute, written after the Civil War in response to the Ku Klux Klan, that allows for damages when force, threats or intimidation are used to prevent government officials from carrying out their duties.

[…]

The district court that first heard this suit already ruled that the First Amendment does not protect Trump’s conduct.

[…]

The lawsuit is still at a preliminary stage, and the Justice Department emphasized that it was not saying the allegation that Trump incited the Jan. 6 riot is true — only that the “plausibly allege[d]” claims describe conduct outside the scope of a president’s official duties.

The lawsuit is still at a preliminary stage, and the Justice Department emphasized that it was not saying the allegation that Trump incited the Jan. 6 riot is true — only that the “plausibly allege[d]” claims describe conduct outside the scope of a president’s official duties.

During Trump’s speech at the rally, he said, in part:

All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by a bold and radical left Democrats which is what they are doing and stolen by the fake news media. That is what they have done and what they are doing. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen.

You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal.

I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election…

All Vice President Pence has to do is send it back to the states to recertify, and we become president, and you are the happiest people…

After Pence refused to “do the right thing,” in Trump’s opinion, he fired up his Twitter machine at 2:24 — ten minutes after rioters broke the first Capitol window — and blasted his vice president:

Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.

“Hang Mike Pence!” could be heard by some of the rioters, after they learned that he certified the Electoral College vote.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Incidentally, I stopped engaging in the debate more than a year ago over Pence’s refusal to “do the right thing,” as Trump continues to claim, or in fact did do the right thing, which some argue Pence was bound to do by the 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the Electoral Count Act of 1887, for one simple reason: No one on either side of the debate is going to change a single mind on the other side.

Meanwhile, it’ll be beyond interesting how this thing ultimately plays out in courts.