‘Trump isn’t immune from civil claims his January 6 rally speech incited riot’

Washington: President Donald Trump is not immune from civil claims that he incited a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021, a federal judge has ruled in one of the last unresolved legal cases stemming from the riot.

US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled Tuesday that Trump’s remarks at his “Stop the Steal” rally, held on the Ellipse near the

White House shortly before the siege began, “plausibly” were inciting words that are not protected by the First Amendment right to free speech.

The Republican president is not shielded from liability for much of his January 6 conduct, including that speech and many of his social media posts that day, according to the judge.

But Mehta said Trump cannot be held liable for his official acts that day, including his Rose Garden remarks during the riot and his interactions with Justice Department officials.

“President Trump has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties,” Mehta wrote. “The content of the Ellipse Speech confirms that it is not covered by official-acts immunity.”

The decision is not the court’s first ruling that Trump can be held liability for the violence at the Capitol and it is unlikely to be

the last given the near-certainty of an appeal.

But the 79-page ruling sets the stage for a possible civil trial in the same courthouse where Trump was charged with crimes for his January 6 conduct, before his 2024 election ended the prosecution.

Mehta previously refused to dismiss the claims against Trump in a February 2022 ruling that

Trump was not entitled to presidential immunity from the claims brought by Democratic members of Congress and law enforcement officers who guarded the Capitol on January 6.