The NAACP, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson and civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll have filed a lawsuit against the former president, Donald Trump, and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for inciting the Capitol Hill riot.
The organization has also filed two white supremacist groups, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“On and before January 6, 2021, the Defendants Donald J. Trump, Rudolph W. Giuliani, Proud Boys, and Oath Keepers conspired to incite an assembled crowd to march upon and enter the Capitol of the United States for the common purpose of disrupting, by the use of force, intimidation and threat, the approval by Congress of the count of votes cast by members of the Electoral College as required by Article II, Section 1 of the United States Constitution,” the introduction of the lawsuit reads.
Last month, audio was leaked of a call between the former president and Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, urging him to overturn the state’s election results. Trump was also heard on the recording making veiled threats.
He maintains the 2020 election was stolen from him despite losing both the popular and the electoral votes. Trump called on his supporters to take to the Capitol to protest the election results.
“In doing so, the Defendants each intended to prevent, and ultimately delayed, members of Congress from discharging their duty commanded by the United States Constitution to approve the results of the Electoral College in order to elect the next President and Vice President of the United States,” the suit reads.
The NAACP also alleges the defendants violated the Ku Klux Klan Act.
The lawsuit was filed days after Trump was acquitted for his alleged role of inciting the deadly event. The acquittal means that he is not barred from running for president in the upcoming 2024 election.
Trump, who has earned the nickname “Teflon Don” for his knack for evading justice, will likely scoff at the newest lawsuit.
But with the evidence continuing to stack against him, and his former ally, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admitting that Trump was “practically and morally responsibly” for the Jan. 6 coup — will the NAACP be able to achieve what no other entity has managed to do up until now… hold Trump fully accountable?
