Trump, Giuliani and Proud Boys Accused of Inciting Capital Riot

U.S. Democratic lawmaker Bennie Thompson filed on Tuesday a lawsuit accusing Donald Trump and lawyer Rudy Giuliani of conspiring with the far-right groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to provoke the January 6 Capitol Riot. This is the first civil action against the former U.S. president, who is over his second impeachment trial.

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"Defendants Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, through their leadership, acted in concert to spearhead the assault on the Capitol while the angry mob that Defendants Trump and Giuliani incited descended on the Capitol," the lawsuit explains.

"The carefully orchestrated series of events that unfolded at the Save America rally and the storming of the Capitol was no accident or coincidence. It was the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College,"  the Mississippi Democratic Rep. Thompson said.

The lawsuit invokes the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan Act, a law enacted in 1871 to allow civil actions against individuals who use "force, intimidation, or threat" to hinder elected people from serving in office. If it moves forward, the legal procedure could expose evidence that was not seen during the Senate impeachment trial.