Capitol Police Officers Sue Trump and Allies Over Election Lies and Jan. 6

A radical of 7 Capitol Police officers filed a lawsuit connected Thursday accusing erstwhile President Donald J. Trump and astir 20 members of far-right extremist groups and governmental organizations of a crippled to disrupt the peaceful modulation of powerfulness during the Capitol riot connected Jan. 6.

The suit, which implicated members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers militia and Trump associates similar Roger J. Stone Jr., was arguably the astir expansive civilian effort to day seeking to clasp Mr. Trump and his allies legally accountable for the storming of the Capitol.

While 3 different akin lawsuits were filed successful caller months, the suit connected Thursday was the archetypal to allege that Mr. Trump worked successful performance with some far-right extremists and governmental organizers promoting his baseless lies that the statesmanlike predetermination was marred by fraud.

“This is astir apt the astir broad relationship of Jan. 6 successful presumption of civilian cases,” said Edward Caspar, a lawyer who is starring the suit for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “It spans from the erstwhile president to militants astir him to his run supporters.”

Several constabulary officers who served during the Capitol riot person travel guardant with stories of the insults and injuries they faced that day, astir prominently astatine a congressional hearing successful July. But the lawsuit, filed successful Federal District Court successful the District of Columbia, was the archetypal clip that the 7 plaintiffs, 5 of whom are Black, offered details of their ordeals.

One of officers, Governor Latson, was helping to unafraid the Senate enclosure erstwhile a mob of rioters broke successful and shoved him, bushed him and hurled radical slurs astatine him, the suit says. Another, Jason DeRoche, was caught successful a melee connected the westbound beforehand steps of the Capitol, where, according to the suit, rioters pelted him with batteries and doused him with mace and carnivore spray, causing his eyes to swell shut.

The suit contends that Mr. Trump and his co-defendants violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 statute that includes protections against convulsive conspiracies that interfere with Congress’s law duties. It besides accuses the defendants of committing “bias-motivated acts of terrorism” successful usurpation of District of Columbia law.

The usage of civilian litigation to clasp Mr. Trump — and galore successful his orbit — accountable for the events of Jan. 6 has taken spot adjacent arsenic the Justice Department has undertaken the largest transgression probe successful its past into the Capitol onslaught and a prime committee of Congress has opened its ain inquiry into the riot. On Wednesday, members of the committee made far-reaching requests to national agencies for elaborate records of Mr. Trump’s movements and meetings connected the time of the attack.

The archetypal of the lawsuits was filed successful February by the N.A.A.C.P. connected behalf of Democratic lawmakers who accused Mr. Trump, his erstwhile lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers of conspiring to forestall certification of the Electoral College ballot connected Jan. 6.

In March, Representative Eric Swalwell, Democrat of California, filed a akin complaint against Mr. Trump, Mr. Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr. and Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, a Trump ally. That aforesaid month, two Capitol Police officers filed a suit against Mr. Trump.

In each of those cases, Mr. Trump has sought to person charges dismissed by arguing that helium was acting successful his authoritative capableness arsenic president connected Jan. 6 and truthful cannot look civilian litigation. Other defendants, similar Mr. Giuliani, person claimed that they were exercising their First Amendment rights to escaped code erstwhile they spoke astatine rallies earlier the storming of the Capitol.

While the caller suit appears to mostly trust connected quality reports and details gleaned from transgression cases filed by the Justice Department, it takes a wide presumption of the origins of the attack. It argues that the conspiracy to disrupt the predetermination started arsenic aboriginal arsenic May 2020, erstwhile Mr. Trump began complaining connected societal media that mail-in voting could “lead to monolithic fraud.”

The suit accuses Mr. Stone, Mr. Trump’s longtime adjutant and ally, of echoing those and different claims, sometimes connected right-wing quality outlets similar Infowars. Mr. Stone, who faced scrutiny aboriginal successful the Justice Department’s investigation, has agelong denied immoderate relation successful the riot.

At a statesmanlike statement successful September, the suit notes, Mr. Trump appeared to summon members of the Proud Boys by telling them to “stand backmost and basal by.” The pursuing month, according to the suit, Stewart Rhodes, the person of the Oath Keepers, appeared connected Infowars, predicting an impending civilian warfare and vowing to station equipped members of his radical extracurricular Washington successful bid to “save the White House.”

Mr. Rhodes is besides nether probe successful transportation with the riot and precocious acknowledged that helium answered questions from the F.B.I., against the proposal of his lawyer.

A fewer weeks aft the election, the suit says, a cardinal organizer of the Stop the Steal question that promoted mendacious claims of predetermination fraud, Ali Alexander, appeared astatine a rally extracurricular the State Capitol successful Georgia with the person of the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio. “We’re going to halt the steal,” the suit quotes Mr. Alexander arsenic saying. “But archetypal we’re going to halt the certification.”

Mr. Alexander’s lawyer, Baron Coleman, has repeatedly said his lawsuit is not nether probe successful transportation with the riot. Mr. Tarrio was not successful Washington connected Jan. 6 but was sentenced this week to 5 months successful prison for possessing amerciable weapons and burning a Black Lives Matter emblem stolen from a historical Black religion successful Washington aft a abstracted pro-Trump rally successful December that besides descended into violence.

The suit mentions different steps on the way to Jan. 6: In precocious November, it says, a California-based governmental organizer named Alan Hostetter, who believed the predetermination was stolen, posted a video connected the net claiming that radical “at the highest levels” needed to beryllium “made an illustration of with an execution oregon 2 oregon three.”

Mr. Hostetter, who was charged successful June with conspiring to tempest the Capitol with members of the Three Percenter militia movement, besides said successful the video that helium was going to instrumentality to Washington “with a cardinal patriots, and we’ll situation that city.”

As for Jan. 6, the suit paints a representation of Stop the Steal activists riling up the mob of Trump supporters gathered successful Washington with lies astir the election, which the president past echoed successful a code adjacent the White House. Members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenter movement, it claims, led the mob connected the crushed successful the Capitol assault.

Mr. Trump, the suit says, knew that “the concern astatine the Capitol was dire” but did not condemn the rioters. Instead, it says, helium released a video 2 hours aft the archetypal breach repeating his prevarication that the predetermination and been stolen and telling the attackers that helium loved them.