US federal appeals court on Friday ruled that former president Donald Trump can be sued over the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Gatekeepers News reports that the attack saw his supporters attempt to thwart certification of his election loss to Joe Biden.
The former US President could now face civil action over the violent clashes which saw a mob overrun law enforcement at the nerve center of American democracy.
Meanwhile, over 1,200 people have been arrested over the melee.
In 2021, two Capitol police officers along with several Democratic lawmakers sued Trump, alleging that he may have incited violence in his public comments to supporters before they descended on Capitol Hill.
His legal team had argued that, as president, he had immunity for his actions, including comments telling his supporters to “fight like hell” as Congress prepared to certify his election defeat.
A three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals in Washington in the ruling said, “It is not that President Trump could not establish his entitlement to immunity… it is that he has not done so.”
It said, “When a first-term president opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win reelection is not an official presidential act.
“When a sitting president running for a second term… speaks at a campaign rally funded and organized by his reelection campaign committee, he is not carrying out the official duties of the presidency. He is acting as office-seeker, not office-holder.”
It added that Trump “recognized that he engaged in his campaign to win reelection — including his post-election efforts to alter the declared results in his favor — in his personal capacity as presidential candidate, not in his official capacity as sitting president.”
The Trump campaign did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
