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For Immediate Release
January, 06 2022, 10:20am EDT
Contact:
Lacy Crawford Jr, lcrawford@lawyerscommittee.org
One Year After Jan. 6 Insurrection, Capitol Police Officers Continue Lawsuit to Hold Trump, Far-Right Extremists and Militant Groups Accountable
The Former President and Others Conspired to Nullify Election Outcome, Launch a Domestic Terrorist Attack on the Capitol, and Disenfranchise Millions
WASHINGTON
One year ago, on January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol Police officers faced a violent mob intent on interrupting the peaceful transfer of presidential power. They were driven by white supremacist rhetoric and intentional misinformation aimed at overturning the legitimate results of an election.
In 2021, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed suit on behalf of eight U.S. Capitol Police officers who defended the ballot certification process at the U.S. Capitol on that fateful day. The lawsuit names as defendants former President Donald J. Trump, Stop the Steal, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and other organizations and individual members of far-right extremist groups and political organizations responsible for the insurrection. The lawsuit is currently pending in a federal court in Washington, DC, as the fight for accountability continues.
The following is a statement from Damon Hewitt, president and executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law marking the anniversary of the attack:
"The violent insurrection on January 6th was an attack on democracy itself--an effort to silence the voices of millions of voters, including record numbers of Black and Brown voters who cast decisive ballots in the 2020 election.
"Our lawsuit is one of the first to represent the Capitol Police officers who risked their lives to defend those voices and votes. The suit seeks to hold accountable those responsible for turning what should have been a peaceful transfer of power into madness. That day officers stood up for the people. Through this lawsuit, we are standing with them against the white supremacist and antidemocratic forces still at play.
"Trump and his allies continue to repeat the Big Lie that fueled the attacks, which has sadly already cost lives and if not addressed will cost us more. These bad actors irresponsibly and intentionally distort reality and truth for their own gain. With each passing week, more revelations continue to demonstrate their cowardice, as well as the depths of their conspiracy and complicity.
"Yet, a number of elected officials refuse to support steps toward accountability. Even worse, aligned efforts to suppress the vote have continued unabated, with a number of states adopting restrictive ballot measures designed to make it more difficult for people to vote and easier for partisan hacks to overturn legitimate election results.
"The sorry legacy of the January 6th attack on the Capitol lives on with every bill that seeks to limit the right to vote, with every election official forced to resign when threatened with violence, and with every passing day that Congress fails to pass critical voting rights legislation like the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. While not employing violence as a tactic, these efforts are cut from the same cloth and share the same aim of the insurrectionists who tried to silence voters by subverting the democratic process.
"What was once subtext for some is now clear as day to many; white supremacy is a threat to each and every one of us. It can cost us our entire democracy if we allow it. Every person of conscience knows that if we continue down this road, justice, fairness, and equality will be empty words. Americans from all walks of life must reject this path of violence, hate, manipulation, and subversion of democracy. Only together can we defeat it."
Background
The lawsuit, Smith v. Trump, argues that the attack on the Capitol violated the Ku Klux Klan Act and was led by many who are self-described white supremacists. As the lawsuit alleges, former President Trump and others deliberately spread election fraud claims and incited violence against members of Congress and the law enforcement officers whose job was to protect them. Learn more at https://www.lawyerscommittee.org/smith-v-trump/
The Smith v. Trump lawsuit builds upon the Lawyers' Committee's historic role as the nation's leading voting rights litigating organization and as convener of the Election Protection coalition--the nation's largest nonpartisan collective fighting voter suppression.
The Lawyers' Committee is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar's leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity - work that continues to be vital today.
(202) 662-8600LATEST NEWS
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“ICE and other federal agents have already shown the cost to us all when the president deploys them on his whim to act as a domestic policing force.”
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Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates are warning that President Donald Trump’s decision to send US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports across the country could have disastrous consequences, particularly given the agency’s deadly conduct on the ground in American cities in recent months.
Trump announced on Sunday that he would be sending ICE agents to airports to assist in security operations, as many Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers have been either quitting or calling out amid a partial US government shutdown that has left them to work without pay.
Naureen Shah, director of policy and government affairs for immigration at the ACLU, expressed significant concerns about sending ICE to airpots, and she said it could further harm Americans' civil liberties.
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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also warned of potentially disastrous consequences from having ICE conduct airport security.
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Democratic lawmakers aren't the only ones predicting Trump's ICE gambit will blow up in his face.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told NPR on Sunday that it was likely that ICE agents would make the situations at airports even worse.
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Update (7:35 am ET):
US President Donald Trump wrote on social media early Monday that he has instructed the Pentagon to "postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions."
Trump asserted that US and Iranian officials have had "very good and productive conversations" over the past two days "regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East."
Iran denied Trump's claim of talks, saying the US president "backed down" after its retaliatory threats against power infrastructure in Gulf nations.
Earlier:
US President Donald Trump's threat over the weekend to bomb Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not fully reopened by Monday night sparked horror around the world and inside Iran, a nation of roughly 90 million people.
"As far as I can tell, everyone is extremely worried," a 35-year-old Tehran resident, identified as Ruhollah, told The New York Times via text message late Sunday as the US president's arbitrary deadline approached. "We are sitting and waiting to see what will happen to us in 48 hours. Everyone will suffer: We will lose power, the Arabs will lose power and water."
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"If you hit electricity, we hit electricity," the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in response to Trump's threat, which gave Iran until approximately 7:45 pm ET on Monday to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as the global energy crisis sparked by the illegal US-Israeli war intensified.
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The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) warned Sunday that if Trump follows through with his threat to strike Iranian power plants, "it is likely the US, Israel, and Iran enter a full-scale infrastructure warfare, where electricity systems—essential for hospitals, water supply, communications, and daily life—are treated as targets."
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Jamal Abdi, NIAC's president, said in a statement that "threatening to bomb Iran’s power plants is a threat to millions of civilians—people who rely on electricity for hospitals, water systems, and basic survival."
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Early Monday, power outages were reported across Tehran as the Israeli military announced "a wide-scale wave of strikes" on the Iranian capital.
"Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in Tehran, Suhaib al-Asa, reported that the size and volume of the explosions in the Iranian capital were 'unprecedented,' especially in the eastern side of the city," the outlet noted. "The Iranian air defense systems were activated in the eastern part of the city, al-Asa said, which indicated Iran was responding to US-Israeli drones hovering over that part of the city."
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"Food is spoiling. Water supply is compromised. Healthcare services are disrupted," said US Rep. Ilhan Omar. "End the blockade now."
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Some Cubans got power back on Sunday after another nationwide blackout on Saturday—the second in less than a week and the third time the grid has collapsed this month after the Trump administration intensified the United States' decades-long economic blockade, cutting off the island nation from Venezuelan oil.
"The Cuban Electric Union, which reports to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, reported that the total disconnection of the national energy system was caused by an unexpected shutdown of a generation unit at the Nuevitas thermoelectric plant in Camaguey province, without providing details on the specific cause of the failure," according to The Associated Press.
Critics from around the world have condemned the US siege as "economic warfare," which is notably occurring as President Donald Trump and his allies in Washington, DC repeatedly float a potential takeover of the country located just 90 miles south of Florida.
Saturday's blackout came a day after The Washington Post reported that "the Cuban government this week refused a request by the US Embassy in Havana to import diesel fuel for its generators, calling the ask 'shameless,' given the Trump administration's fuel blockade on the island, according to diplomatic cables" reviewed by the newspaper.
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