In the recent past, there was reason to believe Donald Trump might face criminal accountability for Jan. 6 and his actions after his 2020 defeat. Those hopes were dashed, however, by the results of the 2024 election and the demise of former special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the president.
There is, however, another potential avenue for accountability — a series of civil lawsuits filed against Trump — though as The New York Times reported, the Justice Department appears to be taking steps to derail this option, too.
The Justice Department made an unusual effort on Thursday to short-circuit a series of civil lawsuits seeking to hold President Trump accountable for his supporters’ attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Department lawyers argued in court papers filed to the judge overseeing the cases that Mr. Trump was acting in his official capacity as president on Jan. 6 and so the federal government itself should take his place as the defendant. That move, if successful, could protect Mr. Trump from having to face judgment for his role in the Capitol attack and from having to pay financial damages if he were found liable.
The Times’ report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that the legal maneuver appeared to be the latest effort to use the powers of the Justice Department to Trump’s advantage “by effectively having himself removed from the lawsuits.”
For those who might benefit from a refresher, in the aftermath of the insurrectionist violence, among those who filed lawsuits against Trump were police officers injured during the insurrectionist violence. In fact, multiple cases were filed:
- In March 2021, two Capitol Police officers, James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby, sued Trump, claiming he was liable for the injuries they suffered during the riot.
- In August 2021, seven more police officers who were attacked and beaten during the Capitol riot sued the former president.
- In January 2022, three more police officers — including two who aided the evacuation of lawmakers — sued Trump, seeking damages for their physical and emotional injuries.
- In January 2023, the longtime partner of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after the Jan. 6 riot, filed a wrongful death civil suit against Trump.
Those civil cases have since been consolidated and are pending before U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta.
To be sure, even if Trump were to lose the civil suits, there would be no criminal consequences, but they could prove to be politically embarrassing and financially costly. Indeed, let’s not forget that he has suffered several major legal setbacks and defeats in recent years — the E. Jean Carroll case, the Trump Organization’s fraud case, the demise of his fraudulent charity, the demise of his fraudulent “university,” et al. — and those were all civil cases.
What’s more, while the Justice Department has a policy prohibiting federal criminal charges against a sitting president, the Supreme Court has already ruled that sitting presidents can face civil suits while in office, and claims from Trump’s lawyers that he’s immune in these cases have already been rejected by two courts.
It’s against this backdrop that the Justice Department decided to intervene. The Times’ report added, “The department has argued that under the law federal officials acting within the scope of their office or employment cannot be sued personally, and that in such instances the government is the only entity that can be targeted.” It’s an argument rooted in the idea that those who claim to have been harmed by the president’s actions on Jan. 6 should be able to sue the federal government, but shouldn’t be able to sue the Republican directly. Will this work? Watch this space. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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