Civil lawsuits seeking to hold Donald Trump accountable for the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack can move forward after the former president declined to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether he is shielded by presidential immunity.
A federal appeals court in December cleared the way for three lawsuits brought against Trump by Democratic lawmakers and US Capitol Police officers to proceed, unanimously holding that not everything a president does or says while in office is protected from liability.
Trump faced a Thursday deadline to seek the Supreme Court’s review of that decision, but his legal team declined to turn to the high court.
The decision means the lawsuits will move to a fact-finding phase at the trial-level federal court in Washington, DC. Trump can continue to claim presidential immunity before that court, but it will be up to the judge overseeing the case to determine whether the conduct at issue was done in Trump’s official capacity as president or as a candidate and therefore not shielded by presidential immunity.
The case could still eventually come before the Supreme Court.
The decision to not turn to the justices is a departure from how Trump’s team has been handling stinging lower-court rulings as he barrels toward the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
On Monday, the former president asked the Supreme Court to temporarily block a unanimous decision issued last week by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that rejected his claim that he’s immune from criminal election subversion charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith.
And last week, the justices heard oral arguments in a dispute over whether Trump should be disqualified from the ballot for his conduct on January 6, with a majority of them appearing ready to…
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