It’s not necessarily shocking news, given how former President Donald Trump has fared riding this legal merry-go-round. Still, this litigious purgatory he finds himself in is about to worsen: a federal court ruled that he’s not immune from January 6 lawsuits. So, brace yourselves, there’s bound to be a mountain of new legal issues facing Trump (via Fox News):
A federal appeals court has ruled Friday that former President Donald Trump is not immune to facing civil lawsuits relating to the events on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sri Srinivasan, the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, wrote in a filing that Capitol Police officers and members of Congress who were at the U.S. Capitol that day have submitted cases seeking civil damages "for harms they allege they suffered arising from the riot," with the sole defendant in the lawsuits being named as Trump.
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Srinivasan said Trump has moved in the district court to dismiss the claims against him, "including on grounds of a President's official-act immunity from damages liability."
"The district court largely rejected his claim of immunity, and President Trump now appeals. The sole issue before us is whether President Trump has demonstrated an entitlement to official-act immunity for his actions leading up to and on January 6 as alleged in the complaints," Srinivasan wrote. "We answer no, at least at this state of the proceedings."
Srinivasan said "since the Supreme Court's decision in Nixon v. Fitzgerald, Presidents have carried out their official responsibilities free from any exposure to civil damages liability" and that decision "established a President's absolute immunity from civil damages claims predicated on his official acts."
But he continued by saying that "the President, though, does not spend every minute of every day exercising official responsibilities" and "when he acts outside the functions of his office, he does not continue to enjoy immunity from damages liability just because he happens to be the President."
It’s all part of the legal crusade against the former president, which is politically nonsensical drivel that most have picked up on, explaining the appalling drop in trust in institutions like the Department of Justice. The FBI dropped a slam-dunk child pornography case to go after alleged January 6 defendants. The video footage has been released, showing no apocalyptic ‘Storm the Bastille 2.0’ hysterics the Left peddled for months. Was it a riot? Sure, some confrontations fit that description, but worse than Pearl Harbor? No. It wasn’t an existential crisis for the United States, which is why no one cared a few weeks after the event, except for liberal media types.
Trump has been indicted four times since he left office, ranging from the porn payment arrangements to Stormy Daniels to the January 6 event. However, he wasn’t charged with fomenting armed rebellion/insurrection. That case is riddled with question marks since Trump’s mind will be on trial, which will be interesting. Of all the drama, the classified document case might be the strongest against him, though the entire effort is outrageous. We’re seeing liberals push institutional power to its limits because they don’t like someone. In the meantime, that projected $500 million legal bill Trump faces for the four trials is about to increase exponentially.