Is Trump liable for January 6th?

[Gomez Adams]

A hearing today is the first major hurdle to find out.

Trump's potential liability for Capitol riot faces major test in court

A federal judge in Washington, DC, questioned former President Donald Trump's actions during his speech on January 6, 2021, as he considers for the first time whether Trump is immune from liability related to his supporters attacking the US Capitol.

www.cnn.com

A federal judge in Washington, DC, is set to consider, for the first time, whether former President Donald Trump is immune from liability related to his supporters attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.​

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The major hearing on Monday is part of a trio of insurrection-related lawsuits seeking to hold Trump and others accountable at a time when the House select committee probing January 6 has aggressively investigated the political leaders who inspired the attack, and as the Justice Department is prosecuting more than 700 rioters for criminal offenses.​

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The court hearing, set to begin at 1 p.m. ET before Judge Amit Mehta of the DC District Court, will address key questions including whether Trump and Republican figures like Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama can shield themselves from legal fallout because of the First Amendment or their stature as elected officials.​

This is over a suit that Senator Eric Swalwell brought along with a suit that 10 other democrats brought as well as a suit from two Capitol Police Officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby.

If they make it past this hurdle you can expect it to be appealed add nauseum, so it'll probably be a year at least before anything comes of it.

Our legal system is just freaking ridiculous. You can literally die before a ruling becomes final it takes so damn long and so many appeals options.

 

[Zeedox]

/popcorntime

 

[Gomez Adams]

I'm betting it all gets tossed. They're trying really hard to sweep all of it under the rug.

Example: Why do you subpoena Bannon, who wasn't even there that day and simply talked smack beforehand, you subpoena Mark Meadows who was there that day in the White House, but you ask Jim Jordan so he can just say, "no" and walk away?

They're taking people out of government and messing with them but if you're still in government you get a free pass. They're trying to make it look like they're doing something, but fact of the matter is it's all a dog and pony show.

 

[Gomez Adams]

I'm betting it all gets tossed.

I may be wrong.

Judge Amit Mehta was appointed by Barrack Obama. He's typically a very close-mouthed, cards close to his chest type of judge that doesn't let on one way or the other what he's thinking; but some of the questions he asked yesterday during the 5 hour long hearing were very telling indeed.

"The words are hard to walk back. You have an almost two-hour window where the President does not say, 'Stop, get out of the Capitol. This is not what I wanted you to do.' What do I do about the fact the President didn't denounce the conduct immediately ... and sent a tweet that arguably exacerbated things? Isn't that, from a plausibility standpoint, that the President plausibly agreed with the conduct of the people inside the Capitol that day?"​

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Trump's lawyer, Jesse Binnall, has argued everything Trump said while serving as President should be immune from liability -- including on January 6 as well as in a call to Georgia officials asking them to "find" votes in early 2021 and at campaign rallies -- and is protected from any lawsuits, because it was all part of his official actions as President.​

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Binnall also argued that Trump encouraged the crowd to act "peacefully and patriotically."​

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"You would have me ignore what [Trump] said in its entirety?" Mehta asked minutes into the hearing. The judge pointed to a Supreme Court case related to the Johnson and Nixon administrations that established the parameters of presidential immunity.​

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"To say that a speech before Congress is the equivalent to a campaign trail stump speech" doesn't appear to be what the Supreme Court had ruled on the boundaries of presidential immunity, Mehta said.​

Trump's potential liability for Capitol riot faces major test in court

A federal judge in Washington, DC, questioned former President Donald Trump's actions during his speech on January 6, 2021, as he considers for the first time whether Trump is immune from liability related to his supporters attacking the US Capitol.

www.cnn.com

 

[Hugo Stiglitz]

I heard the shit in Georgia is coming to a head. I heard on MSNBC that Trump's lawyers met with the DA down there. They're saying that's not good for Trump because it means the DA is giving them a chance to respond to the shit he's in before the charges are filed.

 

[Gomez Adams]

I'll believe it when I see it.

To my knowledge, not one single thing has ever been done about it at all. I would love to be proven wrong, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

 

[Zeedox]

Binnall also argued that Trump encouraged the crowd to act "peacefully and patriotically."​

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Only after a two hour period where it became clear the attempted coup was not going to work...