President Trump’s lawyers on Friday argued that the commander-in-chief is immune from civil lawsuits and cannot be sued for inciting violence during Trump rallies.
“Mr. Trump is immune from suit because he is President of the United States,” the attorneys wrote in a federal court filing in response to a lawsuit brought by three protesters, Politico reported.
The three plaintiffs allege that they were removed and roughed up by Trump supporters during a campaign rally in Louisville, Ky., in March 2016.
{mosads}They seek damages from two Trump supporters, Trump’s campaign and the president himself for allegedly inciting violence at the rally by shouting “get ’em out of here!”
Trump’s lawyers, however, have also maintained that then-candidate Trump was not directing the remark at his supporters and that his statement is protected by the First Amendment.
A federal judge last month dismissed the First Amendment defense, ruling that the remark was “stated in the imperative; it was an order, an instruction, a command.”
According to Politico, a separate filing from a Trump supporter on Friday may also undermine the argument that Trump was not addressing the crowd when he shouted “get ’em out of here!”
Lawyers for Alvin Bamberger, a man seen pushing a young African-American woman during the rally, maintained that Bamberger acted “in response to — and inspired by — Trump and/or the Trump Campaign’s urging to remove the protesters.”
According to the report, Bamberger’s lawyers also argued that their client “admits only that he touched a woman,” and not “that he assaulted that woman.”