NAACP Sues Trump, Giuliani Over Election Certification And Riot

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 17: House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) listens to testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray during a hearing about 'worldwide threats to the homeland' in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill September 17, 2020 in Washington, DC. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf did not show up for the hearing. An August Government Accountability Office report found that Wolf's appointment by the Trump Administration, which has regularly skirted the Senate confirmation process, was invalid and a violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The N.A.A.C.P. has filed a lawsuit in federal court against former president Donald Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. The suit, brought on behalf of Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) claims the two violated a 19th century statute when they tried to prevent certification of the election on January 6th, according to the New York Times.

The lawsuit contends that Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 statute that includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfered with Congress’s constitutional duties; the suit also names the Proud Boys, the far-right nationalist group, and the Oath Keepers militia group. The legal action accuses Mr. Trump, Mr. Giuliani and the two groups of conspiring to incite a violent riot at the Capitol, with the goal of preventing Congress from certifying the election.

The suit contends that Mr. Thompson was forced to hide on the floor of the house gallery for three hours and wear a gas mask on January 6 while hearing “threats of physical violence against any member who attempted to proceed to approve the Electoral College ballot count.”

The suit also alleges Giuliani and Trump worked in collaboration with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers far-right extremist groups. Mr. Thompson told the Times that he would have not brought the suit if the Senate had convicted Mr. Trump.

"The lawsuit, filed Tuesday morning in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that Trump and Giuliani, in collaboration with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, conspired to incite the riots … in violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act" https://t.co/B0OxTxw7Fx
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 16, 2021

Politico spoke with the president of the N.A.A.C.P.:

“If we don’t put a check on the spread of domestic terrorism, it will consume this nation and transform it to something that none of us recognize,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in an interview. “We must, as a nation, prevent the spread of this type of boldness where [insurrectionists] will go to our U.S. Capitol and seek an act of treason.”