Former President Donald Trump is entitled to support from the government if he's found liable in a civil suit claiming he violated the rights of racial justice protesters who were driven out of a park near the White House in June 2020, according to the Justice Department.
In a notice filed in federal court in Washington late Monday, attorneys with the DOJ said that the suit's allegations, which claim that the use of the National Guard and police to remove the protesters, stem from Trump's official duties as president, reports Politico.
"On the basis of the information now available with respect to the claims set forth therein, I find that Donald J. Trump was acting within the scope of federal office or employment at the time of the incident out of which the plaintiffs' claims arise," James Touhey Jr., the head of the Torts Branch in DOJ's Civil Division, said in the notice.
In addition, DOJ attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the latest developments, and an attorney for the lawsuit's plaintiffs did not immediately comment on the case.
The lawsuit was one of several cases filed after demonstrators were cleared from Lafayette Park during the racial justice protests following the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd.
The DOJ's ruling assuming liability for Trump comes more than four years after the protests. He was initially named as a defendant based on his official capacity as president, but this March, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich allowed the plaintiffs to amend the lawsuit so they could seek financial damages from him.
Parts of the lawsuits filed in connection with the Lafayette Square protests were settled through the DOJ in 2022. The settlement included changing the policies of the Park Police and Secret Service, so protesters could be protected.
The DOJ's decision is one of the latest concerning Trump's conduct while in office after the Supreme Court ruled in July that presidents have immunity for actions that are performed as part of their official duties.
The DOJ has come under fire for stepping in on Trump's behalf before, including in September 2020, when Trump's Attorney General Bill Barr took over his defense in the E. Jean Carroll civil defamation lawsuit.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, coming in when Joe Biden became president in 2021, stood by Barr's position, which drew complaints from Democrats over the DOJ fighting for Trump in a case with personal allegations.
The DOJ last year backed out of supporting Trump in Carroll's case. She ended up winning $83.3 million in one lawsuit involving her claims that Trump had sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. She also won $5 million in her defamation case.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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