Trump can be sued for January 6, Justice Department says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump can be sued by injured Capitol Police officers and Democratic lawmakers over the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, the Justice Department said Thursday in a federal court case testing Trump's legal vulnerability and the limits of executive power.

The department wrote that although a president enjoys broad legal latitude to communicate to the public on matters of concern, “no part of a President's official responsibilities includes the incitement of imminent private violence. By definition, such conduct plainly falls outside the President's constitutional and statutory duties.”

The brief was filed by lawyers of the Justice Department's Civil Division and has no bearing on a separate criminal investigation by a department special counsel into whether Trump can be criminally charged over efforts to undo Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election ahead of the Capitol riot.

In fact, the lawyers note that they are not taking a position with respect to potential criminal liability for Trump or anyone else.

The Justice Department wrote that it also takes no view on a lower court judge's conclusion that those who sued Trump have “plausibly” alleged that his speech caused the riot. Nevertheless, the department said that an appeals court should reject Trump's claim that he's immune from the lawsuits.

The Justice Department cautioned that the “court must take care not to adopt rules that would unduly chill legitimate presidential communication” or saddle a president with meritless lawsuits.

“In exercising their traditional communicative functions, Presidents routinely address controversial issues that are the subject of passionate feelings. Presidents may at times use strong rhetoric. And some who hear that rhetoric may overreact, or even respond with violence,” the department wrote.

Trump is appealing a decision by a federal judge in Washington, who last year rejected efforts by the former president to toss out the conspiracy civil lawsuits filed by lawmakers and two Capitol police officers. US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Trump's words during a rally before the violent storming of the US Capitol were likely “words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment.”

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