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Congressman Bennie Thompson, the Democratic lawmaker who partners with the NAACP in a lawsuit against former President Trump and Rudy Giuliani, says he’s looking forward to his day in court.
“Donald Trump has to go. If he doesn’t, we will bankrupt him,” Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told CBSN on Wednesday. He spoke to NAACP Chairman Derrick Johnson about the lawsuit they are bringing against those they want to be held responsible for January 6 assault on the US Capitol.
Thompson, represented by the NAACP, filed the lawsuit on Tuesday, alleging that Mr. Trump, Giuliani and far-right groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers conspired to incite to attack as lawmakers gathered to reaffirm President Biden’s Victory of the electoral college.
The lawsuit accuses them of having violated the Ku Klux Klan law of 1871, which prohibits two or more people from conspiring to “prevent, by force, intimidation or threat”, any official from carrying out their duties.
“The law was put in place to protect these members of Congress so that we can truly have a democracy that delivers on the promise of the Constitution, without individuals worrying about being intimidated or threatened for their lives,” Johnson said, adding that the Capitol riots “fit perfectly” into the reason the legislation was passed.
Thompson compared modern times extremist groups as the Proud boys and Oath keepers to the Ku Klux Klan, claiming that the groups “broke away from the Klan connection.”
“They tried to do everything to prevent people of color and progressives from asserting their rights as American citizens, and so it is an opportunity – from a punitive standpoint in this lawsuit – to put them to bankruptcy, ”he said.
Mr. Trump was acquitted by the Senate in its second impeachment trial after House impeachment officials spent four days presenting evidence linking the former president’s false allegations of a “stolen” election to violent events in the January 6. Mr. Trump issued a statement saying he “did not incite or conspire to incite” violence on Capitol Hill.
Thompson said the arguments and evidence presented by his colleagues in the House “justify this trial.” He pointed to Mr. Trump’s repeated Twitter posts telling his followers to come to Washington on January 6, culminating in a heated speech in which the then president told his supporters: “We’re going down to Capitol Hill. “as lawmakers gathered for the vote count.
“The only thing that was supposed to happen on January 6 was the certification of the election,” Thompson added.
Despite the ex-president’s acquittal in the Senate, Johnson said he was confident their case would go to court.
“It’s a different standard, which is not based on partisanship,” he said. “We believe there are enough facts, videos and statements directly from the president – whether in speeches or through his tweets – that will conclusively show that there was a conspiracy to prevent the peaceful transfer of power in this country. “
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