Topline
A federal judge on Thursday denied former President Donald Trump’s bid to pause three consolidated civil cases stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, adding to the GOP presidential nominee’s legal battles as his New York criminal trial gets underway.
Key Facts
The lawsuits, brought by a group of Democrats in Congress and Capitol Police officers, may advance, federal District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled, rejecting Trump’s request for a stay in the cases pending the result of a criminal election interference case against him in Washington, D.C.
Plaintiffs in those suits are seeking to hold Trump liable for the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2021, and while Trump had previously attempted to have those cases thrown out, that bid was also rejected by a federal appeals court in December, and again by Mehta in February, with Mehta ruling Trump’s claim of presidential immunity was “misleading and wrong as a matter of law.”
Trump has not appealed these cases to the Supreme Court, though the high court is slated to consider his presidential immunity argument in his federal election interference case later this month.
Surprising Fact
The lawsuits specifically seek to hold Trump liable under the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan Act, which was enacted in the aftermath of the Civil War in response to KKK violence. The act makes it a crime to “prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States.”
News Peg
In addition to the Jan. 6 cases, Trump has also been found liable in three civil cases, including two defamation cases from writer E. Jean Carroll and his New York fraud case with the Trump Organization. He also faces four criminal indictments, including his hush money case in New York, which went to jury selection this week. So far in that trial—where Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records—seven prospective jurors have been empaneled, though two have already been excused, after one said she had been identified by people close to her and worried she might not be able to remain unbiased, and after prosecutors grilled another who shares a name with someone who was arrested in the 1990s for taking down political advertisements.
Big Number
$454.2 million. That’s how much Trump was ordered to pay in his New York civil fraud case last month, where Trump, executives at the Trump Organization and his adult children were found liable for fraudulently inflating the value of their assets for favorable business deals. The bond was lowered to $175 million, after a judge ruled last month Trump can delay the full payment while he appeals the ruling—Trump had claimed he could not secure a bond to pay the full amount, though prosecutors called that argument “unreliable.” Trump was also ordered to pay $88.3 million in two defamation cases brought by Carroll, who alleged Trump raped her in a changing room in the 1990s. The former president posted a $91.6 million bond—including interest—last month and appealed that ruling. Plaintiffs in the Jan. 6 cases have not specified what monetary damages they are seeking.
