Appeals Court Says Trump Can’t Use Presidency to Avoid Capitol Police Lawsuits

The federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Friday ruled that former President Donald Trump is not immune from lawsuits brought by Capitol police officers regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. 

The order, released on the docket Friday, stated that the former president failed to demonstrate that he was entitled to “absolute  presidential immunity from certain civil damages claims against him.” 

The judges rejected his argument that his alleged actions “constituted speech on matters of public concern” and that his speech was “invariably an official function." 

“The salient question in Blassingame, we explained, was instead whether President Trump’s alleged actions reasonably could be understood as official functions of the presidency, in which case official-act immunity would attach, or, alternatively, whether they reasonably could be understood only as re-election activity, in which case it would not."