Former President Donald Trump does not have "absolute immunity" for actions surrounding the presidential 2020 election, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the D.C. District Court issued his ruling in a lawsuit brought about by civil rights groups that claim Trump's actions surrounding the 2020 election unfairly discriminated against some voters.
Trump's lawyers argued the former president cannot be held liable in civil lawsuits because of immunity around the presidency.
Sullivan said Trump's conduct was not be part of his official duties, thus offering him less legal protection.
"If former President Trump disrupted the certification of the electoral vote count, as plaintiffs allege here, such actions would not constitute executive action in defense of the Constitution," wrote Sullivan, who was appointed to the federal bench by then-President Bill Clinton in 1994.
"For these reasons, the court concludes that former President Trump is not immune from monetary damages in this suit."
Sullivan's ruling merely allows the NAACP and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization to rewrite their lawsuit against Trump.
The judge has not determined whether Trump actually is liable for what the plaintiffs claim.
Sullivan, though, added Trump's response to the 2020 and 2022 elections show the former president still could "pose a very substantial risk in the future to plaintiffs' fundamental right to vote."
"President Trump continues to spread false claims about the 2022 elections and continues to attempt to pressure officials into nullifying the election results: Plaintiffs extensively allege the efforts of former President Trump and his allies as recently as March 2022 to get state officials to overturn the election results; to endorse and provide financial support to candidates for office who supported his false claims of election fraud; all while fundraising for the 2024 presidential election," the judge wrote.
"These allegations are perhaps the opposite of what the Trump Defendants term 'vague suggestions of fear or intimidation.'"
The NAACP and MWRO sued Trump in late 2020 for his efforts to overturn the results of the presidential election, specifically for "disenfranchising black voters in Michigan" by pressuring state officials not to certify election results.
A similar set of other cases currently are before the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., where Trump is arguing he has absolute immunity from actions while serving as president, CNN reported.
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