Former House impeachment manager Eric Swalwell on Friday sued former President Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, seeking to hold Trump and his allies accountable for inciting the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, CNN reports.
The new lawsuit filed on Friday by Swalwell, a California Democrat who helped to lead impeachment arguments against Trump for inciting insurrection, follows a similar suit filed last month by Rep. Bennie Thompson against Trump, Giuliani and the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys groups.
Swalwell's case makes some of the same claims as Thompson's and cites a civil rights law meant to counter the Ku Klux Klan's intimidation of elected officials, according to CNN.
This lawsuit also alleges Trump, Trump Jr., Giuliani and Brooks broke Washington, DC, laws, including an anti-terrorism act, by inciting the riot, and that they aided and abetted violent rioters and inflicted emotional distress on the members of Congress.
Friday's suit could bump up against free speech protections for speakers at the rally, as well as immunity Trump could try to claim he had while serving as president. All of the elected officials in the lawsuit, including Trump, are named in their personal capacities in court, meaning they would use private lawyers and not be shielded by their public offices.
"Trump directly incited the violence at the Capitol that followed and then watched approvingly as the building was overrun," the lawsuit says. "The horrific events of January 6 were a direct and foreseeable consequence of the Defendants' unlawful actions. As such, the Defendants are responsible for the injury and destruction that followed."
Last month, Jason Miller, a spokesman for Trump, distanced him from responsibility for the insurrection, in a response to Thompson's lawsuit.
"President Trump has been acquitted in the Democrats' latest Impeachment Witch Hunt, and the facts are irrefutable," Miller said in a statement at the time. "President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the Jan. 6th rally on the Ellipse. President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6th."
In response to the new insurrection lawsuit, Miller attacked Swalwell personally in a statement over his pursuit of "yet another witch hunt." Miller also called the two Trump impeachments "hoaxes."
The lawsuits come after the Senate acquitted Trump of charges of “inciting insurrection” leading to the January 6 riots. While the vote was 57-43 in favor of conviction, it was 10 shy of the supermajority needed.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)