Both men are accused of inciting the recent storming of the US Capitol
Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani are being sued over the deadly US Capitol riots on January 6th, according to reports in the United States.
Member of Congress Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi, is filing a lawsuit under the Ku Klux Klan Act. This makes it an offence to prevent elected public officials from “discharging any duties”.
The US Capitol siege began shortly after a ‘Stop The Steal’ rally in which the former president spoke on January 6th.
Pro-Trump loyalists stormed the historic US Capitol building in Washington D.C. as Congress was in session certifying Electoral College votes from November’s presidential election.
Five people died, including one police officer. Two more police officers took their own lives in the days following the violent events.
Insurrectionists storm the US Capitol on January 6th. (Photo: Getty)Former New York City mayor Giuliani served as Trump’s attorney, and has long been an agitator for the former president’s causes.
Trump and Giuliani have repeatedly peddled the myth that the 2020 US presidential election was “fraudulent”, despite there being no evidence to the contrary.
Both Trump and Giuliani are accused of having incited the insurrection alongside two prominent far-right organisations; the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
These far-right groups are accused of acting “in concert to spearhead the assault.”
The Proud Boys have been described as a “neo-fascist” organisation. Many of its members participated in the attack on the US Capitol.
Actor and former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger previously likened the Proud Boys to the Nazi Party.
He said: “I grew up in Austria. I’m very aware of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass.
“It was a night of rampage against the Jews carried out in 1938 by the Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys. Wednesday was the Day of Broken Glass right here in the United States.”
The Oath Keepers are an anti-government militia comprised of former and serving members of the military, police and emergency services who vow to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.
