Representative Bennie Thompson, D-MS and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, is suing Trump and Giuliani, along with two far-right groups - the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys — for the January 6 riot, alleging conspiracy to incite deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol. Other Democratic Congresspersons, including Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia, and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, are expected to join as plaintiffs, as well.

The NAACP and civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll filed the lawsuit on Thompson’s behalf. The suit alleges that Trump and the other defendants violated the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act by attempting to interfere in Congress’s certification of the Electoral College count. The Ku Klux Klan Act was one of a group of Enforcement Acts created at that time with the intent to protect the enfranchisement of Black citizens from intimidation and violence while feeling was still high right after the Civil War.

Trump’s adviser, Jason Miller, said, “President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the January 6 rally on the Ellipse. President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on January 6.” He also said that Giuliani “is not currently representing President Trump in any legal matters.”

This is the first suit filed against Trump after the Senate acquitted him on Saturday, February 13, 2021, in his second impeachment trial. That acquittal is likely to provoke additional legal scrutiny of Trump’s actions regarding the January 6 riot, in which five people died.

After the vote, in which seven Republicans voted to impeach, Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican, blamed Trump for the January 6 violence, saying there was “no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible.” McConnell further said he had voted to acquit based on his belief that a former president cannot be tried by the senate, but can be held liable in the courts. McConnell said, “He didn’t get away with anything yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation.”

Thompson’s lawsuit will attempt to hold Trump liable in court. He told reporters, “I am privileged to partner with the NAACP to have my day in court so that the perpetrators of putting members of Congress at risk can be held accountable.”

Thompson continued, “While the majority of Republicans in the Senate abdicated their responsibility to hold the President accountable, we must hold him accountable for the insurrection that he so blatantly planned. Failure to do so will only invite this type of authoritarianism for the anti-democratic forces on the far right that are so intent on destroying our country.”

Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio doubts the lawsuit will be allowed to proceed in federal court, calling it frivolous. He said, “Were there Proud Boys that went in? Yes, and they’re idiots. They shouldn’t have gone in. But I’m going to support them because they are my brothers. But there was no plan to go into the Capitol. Unfortunately, one of my guys broke a window. Others trespassed. But there was no plan to even interrupt Congress."

The main allegations of the suit mirror many of those made in Trump’s impeachment trial. The allegations include Trump spending months pushing unfounded claims about election fraud despite evidence to the contrary, pumping his supporters with lies, and then aiming them at the Capitol on January 6. The lawsuit also says that while Trump and Giuliani portrayed the election as stolen, Trump “endorsed rather than discouraged” threats of violence from his angry supporters in the weeks leading to the Capitol assault.

The suit alleges that Trump, Giuliani, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys conspired to incite a mob, march on the Capitol, and prevent Congress’ counting of the Electoral College votes through intimidation, threat, and force.

“The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence. It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College,” the suit says.

The language of the lawsuit states “The insurrection at the Capitol was a direct, intended, and foreseeable result of the Defendants’ unlawful conspiracy. It was instigated according to a common plan that the Defendants pursued since the election held in November 2020.”

Proud Boys International, a Texas limited liability company, and the Oath Keepers, a militia organization incorporated as a nonprofit in Nevada, are both accused of leading the assault on the Capitol. Trump and Giuliani, his lawyer, are accused of inciting the mob.

One of the allegations states that while Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Giuliani was busy calling members of Congress and asking them to “slow down” the counting of electoral votes.

Joseph Sellers, a lawyer who, together with the NAACP filed the lawsuit on Thompson’s behalf, said, “Inciting a riot, or attempting to interfere with the congressional efforts to ratify the results of the election that are commended by the Constitution, could not conceivably be within the scope of ordinary responsibilities of the president. In this respect, because of his conduct, he is just like any other private citizen.”

The lawsuit makes the broad accusation that Trump conspired, through a months-long effort, to discredit the outcome, lean on individual states and his own vice president to overturn the election, and disrupt the constitutional activities of Congress. Further, Thompson’s attorneys argue that directing an assault on a “coequal branch of government” does not qualify as protecting and defending the U.S. Constitution.

Sellers said, “This lawsuit is very simple. It relies on this protection which every member of Congress is entitled to, that they be free of threats of violence and intimidation and free that day to certify results of the election of President Biden and Vice President Harris.”

Of the Ku Klux Klan Act, Sellers said, “Fortunately, this hasn’t been used very much. But what we see here is so unprecedented that it’s really reminiscent of what gave rise to the enactment of this legislation right after the Civil War.” The Ku Klux Klan Act was passed in response to Klan intimidation and violence that tried to prevent members of Congress in the Reconstruction south from performing their constitutional duties.

NAACP president Derrick Johnson said they are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, noting that the decision for those types of damages is rooted in an arsenal of tools that have previously worked to fight back against white supremacy. He said, “The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the Ku Klux Klan that bankrupted a chapter. This is very similar. If we do nothing, we can be ensured these groups will continue to spread and grow in their boldness. We must curb the spread of white supremacy.” A 2008 judgment against a Kentucky-based Klan group ordered them to pay $2.5 million in damages.

“Donald Trump has tried to destroy the nation, and we will not let him get away with it,” Johnson said.

In a statement, Thompson said that Trump’s “gleeful support of violent white supremacists led to a breach of the Capitol that put my life, and that of my colleagues, in grave danger. It is by the slimmest of luck that the outcome was not deadlier.”

Thompson was in the Capitol when the mob struck. He heard rioters pounding on the doors of the House chamber and saw security guards blocking the door with furniture. The suit says, “Plaintiff Thompson heard a gunshot, the source of which, at the time, was unknown to him, although he later learned that it had killed one of the rioters who had forced her way into the Capitol lobby.”

Lawmakers and Thompson had to lie on the floor and put on gas masks. After they were allowed to leave the gallery, they sheltered in a room with 200-300 other lawmakers, staff, and family.

The lawsuit notes that, “During this entire time, Plaintiff Thompson reasonably feared for his physical safety. While trapped in the building, during the siege by the rioters that Defendants unleashed on the Capitol, Plaintiff Thompson feared for his life and worried that he might never see his family again.”

The lawsuit makes note of the fact that this all took place during the pandemic, and that Thompson, who is in his 70s, is at high risk for COVID-19. It says that after the siege, two lawmakers who sheltered in the same location as Thompson tested positive for the virus.

Thompson said, “This is me, and hopefully others, having our day in court to address the atrocities of January 6. I trust the better judgment of the courts because obviously Republican members of the Senate could not do what the evidence overwhelmingly presented.”