Civil rights group’s lawsuit using Ku Klux Klan Act is last hope of holding Trump accountable for Jan. 6
“We have to decide, as a nation, do we want to allow that type of racialized political violence to be normalized," says Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, about a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 insurrection of 2021.
One of the nation’s leading civil rights groups is fighting to hold President-elect Donald Trump accountable for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“We have to decide, as a nation, do we want to allow that type of racialized political violence to be normalized and to go unaccounted for,” said Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The civil rights organization is leading the civil lawsuit, Smith v. Trump, on behalf of several U.S. Capitol Police officers who were injured and harmed by the Jan. 6 attack four years ago. The suit is seeking punitive damages in an amount to be determined by the jury at trial, awarded cost of attorney fees, among other damages.
Hewitt tells theGrio that the attack on the Capitol was a violation of civil rights, namely that of Black and brown voters whose ballots Trump and his supporters sought to overturn. However, his lawsuit focuses squarely on the officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Monday, Congress peacefully certified Trump’s presidential win in the 2024 election, cementing him as the 47th president of the United States. However, this marked a stark contrast to what happened four years ago when a mob of Trump’s supporters did what seemed unfathomable at the time.
Thousands physically assaulted officers guarding the Capitol, some using weapons and breaking windows in an effort to breach the federal building and stop the certification of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ 2020 election win. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, approximately 140 officers were injured during the attack.
The lawsuit filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law alleges that Trump and other defendants, including the white nationalist group Proud Boys, violated the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.
“There’s a provision that prohibits a conspiracy to violate civil rights. You don’t have to be wearing the hood in order to do that,” Hewitt told theGrio.
He added, “If you have multiple parties who are in communication to deprive people of their civil rights, to stop processes like execution of functions, like counting of ballots – that’s what this type of law is tailor-made for.”
Hewitt said it’s imperative that justice is served and sees his lawsuit on behalf of Capitol Police officers as the “last leg” of a “stool of accountability” for what happened four years ago, particularly after the political process of impeachment and investigation by the House Select Committee in Congress led by Rep. Bennie Thompson.
The lawsuit alleges that the police officers who are part of the Smith v. Trump case experienced a range of damages, including PTSD and long-term trauma. Some officers not a part of the lawsuit also died as a result of the Capitol attack. Though the Lawyers’ Committee has previously advocated for police reform legislation like the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, Hewitt emphasized that the organization is not “anti-police” and that this lawsuit on behalf of officers is about justice. He also acknowledged the racial justice aspect of the lawsuit, as those officers were also defending against the “big lie” that there were “stolen votes” in 2020, largely in cities with large populations of Black and brown voters in cities like Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, and Milwaukee.
If Trump is able to evade accountability in this case, as he has done in countless political and legal attempts to hold him accountable, Hewitt said it would mean that he and others could continue to “injure Black people and people standing up for our rights with impunity.” Trump has also vowed to pardon some people convicted for the Jan. 6 attack.
“It really sends the message that we don’t matter. That’s not something we can stand by,” said Hewitt.
As Trump prepares to be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States, the civil rights lawyer expressed concern that the history and nature of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, could lead to a “whitewashing of what has really happened.”
In states like Oklahoma and Arkansas, where elected officials have already moved to censor or eliminate teachings about race and racism in America, Hewitt could very well see the omission of Jan. 6 in textbooks. “Unless we can stop them,” he added.
As Trump continues to claim presidential immunity in other legal cases as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling granting him broad immunity from prosecution, Hewitt says the Smith v. Trump lawsuit could be one of the first cases to test that theory, even if it is a civil case.
“We have been successful to this point in keeping the case alive in the federal district court despite multiple attempts to kill it,” he noted. “If it was easy for them to overcome, they would have defeated it already.”
He added, “Trump tends to play the ‘try-to-run-the-clock-out’ type of deal that worked for the criminal prosecutions, but that’s not going to work in this civil rights case.”
The Smith v. Trump case has surpassed the discovery phase and is expected to have its next court date in the coming months.
Gerren Keith Gaynor is a White House Correspondent and the Managing Editor of Politics at theGrio. He is based in Washington, D.C.
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