WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s lawyers urged a federal judge on Friday to rule that Trump is entitled to presidential immunity from civil claims that he instigated a mob attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
US District Judge Amit Mehta did not rule from the bench after hearing arguments from Trump’s lawyers and lawyers for Democratic members of Congress suing the Republican president and allies over the January 6, 2021 attack.
Trump spoke to a crowd of his supporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House before the mob attack disrupted the joint session of Congress to certify Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Trump’s lawyers argue that his conduct leading up to January 6 and the day of the riot is protected by presidential immunity because he was acting in his official capacity.
“The whole point of immunity is to give the president clarity to speak in the moment as the commander in chief,” Trump lawyer Joshua Halpern told the judge.
The lawmakers’ lawyers argue that Trump cannot prove that he was acting entirely in his official capacity rather than as a private individual seeking office. And the US Supreme Court has held that office-seeking conduct falls outside the scope of presidential immunity, they argue.
“President Trump has the burden of proof here,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Joseph Sellers. “We submit that he has come nowhere to meet that burden.”
At the end of Friday’s hearing, Mehta said that the arguments gave him “a lot to think about” and he would decide “as soon as we can.”
Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chaired the House Homeland Security Committee, sued Trump, his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani and members of the extremist groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers over the January 6 riot. Other Democratic members of Congress later joined the litigation.
The civil claims survived Trump’s clemency act on the first day of his second term, when he pardoned, commuted prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of all 1,500 criminal cases stemming from the Capitol siege. More than 100 police officers were injured while defending the Capitol from rioters.
Halpern said immunity allows the president to act “with courage and fearlessness.”
“Immunity exists to protect the prerogatives of the president,” he said.
The plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that the context and circumstances of the president’s remarks on Jan. 6 — not just the content of his words — are key to determining whether he is immune from liability.
“You have to look at what happened leading up to Jan. 6,” Sellers said.