Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and President-elect Donald Trump enter the clubhouse for their meeting at Trump International Golf Club on November 20, 2016 in Bedminster Township, New Jersey.
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Former President Donald Trump and his former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to instigate the deadly invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
The lawsuit, filed by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., And 10 other House Democrats, accuses the defendants of violating federal law on the Ku Klux Klan on Jan. 6 by hitting a ton of Trump’s Encourage supporters to prevent Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Separate motions to dismiss the lawsuit on Thursday argued that Trump and Giuliani’s statements at a rally before the uprising near the Capitol were protected by the first amendment.
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At the event, Trump had put the Republican legislature and then Vice President Mike Pence, who chaired the joint session, under pressure to reject the election results of the most important states. He urged his followers to march to the Capitol and told the crowd, “If you don’t fight like hell, you will have no more land.”
But Trump’s attorney Jesse Binnall noted on top of his dismissal motion that Trump had also told the audience to “make it peaceful and patriotic” [their voices] belongs.”
The Democrats’ claims “directly violate the absolute immunity” that the Constitution imparts to the then president and “do not plausibly advocate a viable conspiracy theory” against Trump, Binnall said.
US President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, gesticulates as Trump supporters gather in the White House before his speech to confirm the results of the 2020 US presidential election in Washington, USA, on January 6, 2021 Challenge US Congress.
Jim Bourg | Reuters
Giuliani had called for “trial through struggle” during the rally. The former New York mayor’s attorney, however, in his motion to dismiss Thompson’s lawsuit, argued that “no reasonable reader or listener would have found Giuliani’s speech directed to march to the Capitol, forcibly break the perimeter and enter the Capitol and then forcibly close terrorize.” Congress not to participate in the voting certificate.
The conspiracy claim of the Democrats “contradicts any plausibility and credibility at first sight,” wrote Giuliani’s lawyer.
The lawsuit also cites the extremist groups of the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and Warboys as defendants.
The Oath Guards filed their own motion Thursday morning to dismiss the case, arguing that Democratic lawmakers lacked “reputation” or the ability to sue because of the alleged harm they suffered from the defendants.
The January 6 mob broke through lines of police outside the Capitol and led hundreds of rioters to flood the building. They physically attacked law enforcement, broke windows, broke into convention offices, demolished the grounds and stole property.
The invasion forced a joint session of Congress to vacate their chambers and hide for their safety, temporarily frustrating legislature efforts to uphold Trump’s loss of Biden.
Thompson’s lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Washington in February, accused Trump and Giuliani of “launching a concerted campaign to misinform their followers and the public, promoting and promoting intimidation and violence to their mutual benefit.” Plan to promote re-election of Defendant Trump, even after states decisively confirmed election results that he lost the election. ”
This campaign, which included an attempt to prevent Congress from counting the January 6 electoral college votes, was conducted “to prevent Plaintiff Thompson and other members of Congress from certifying that former Vice President Biden won the presidential election has. “Thompson’s lawsuit said.
In April, 10 more House members joined the lawsuit. They are: California representatives Karen Bass, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters; Steve Cohen from Tennessee; Bonnie Watson Coleman from New Jersey; Veronica Escobar from Texas; Hank Johnson Jr. of Georgia; Marcy Kaptur from Ohio; Jerry Nadler from New York; and Pramila Jayapal from Washington state.
