The NAACP has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani over the Jan.6 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol.
According to The New York Times, the NAACP, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, and civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll have filed a lawsuit against Trump and his colleague Giuliani for their involvement in the incitement of violence that took place on Jan. 6.
Politico reports that the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia claims Giuliani and Trump violated the Ku Klux Klan Act by conspiring with white supremacist groups to incite the insurrection. The groups the NAACP is referring to are the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. The Ku Klux Klan Act is a Reconstruction-era statute that protects formerly enslaved Black Americans and legislators in Congress from violence brought on by white supremacist violence.
According to a press release obtained and shared by Politico, Representatives Hank Johnson and Bonnie Watson Coleman will be joining the lawsuit as plaintiffs. The legal document states Trump’s words during his “Save America” speech encouraged white supremacists groups and other domestic terrorist organizations to incite violence on the U.S. Capitol. It also includes details about how Giuliani called on lawmakers by name, pushing for them to “slow down” the counting of Electoral College votes.
This move comes after the Senate voted to acquit Trump on Feb. 13 despite his incitement of violence that led to the riots and corruption in the White House. Thompson said the lawsuit would help put a stop to another potential riot.
“If we don’t put a check on the spread of domestic terrorism, it will consume this nation and transform it to something that none of us recognize,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in an interview. “We must, as a nation, prevent the spread of this type of boldness where [insurrectionists] will go to our U.S. Capitol and seek an act of treason.”
