WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump on Friday urged a federal judge to rule that Trump is entitled to presidential immunity from civil charges that he incited a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta did not rule after hearing arguments from Trump’s lawyers and attorneys for Democratic members of Congress who are suing the Republican president and his allies over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Trump was speaking to his supporters at a “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House before the mob’s attack disrupted a joint session of Congress set to certify Democratic President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Trump’s lawyers argue that his actions before Jan. 6 and the day of the riot are protected by presidential immunity because he was acting in his official capacity.
“The whole purpose of immunity is to allow the president to speak clearly as commander in chief,” Trump’s attorney Joshua Halpern told the judge.
Lawyers for the lawmakers argued that Trump could not prove that he was acting solely in an official capacity and not as an individual seeking public office. They argue that people seeking public office are not entitled to presidential immunity.
“President Trump has the burden of proof here,” said plaintiffs’ attorney Joseph Sellers. “We don’t think he has fully met that burden.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is suing Trump, his personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers extremist groups over the Jan. 6 riots. Other Democratic members of Congress later joined the lawsuit.
Trump spent the first day of his second term adopting sweeping clemency, pardoning, commuting sentences and ordering the dismissal of all more than 1,500 criminal cases stemming from the Capitol siege, but civil claims remain.