Donald Trump sued on eve of Capitol riot second anniversary over cop’s death
Former President Donald Trump was sued by the partner of a Capitol police officer who died after the January 6 insurrection – on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the assault.
The lawsuit naming Trump and two other Capitol rioters was filed in Washington, DC, federal court on Thursday by the late officer Brian Sicknick’s longtime partner.
It seeks at least $10million in damages each from Trump and Julian Khater and George Tanios, the two men accused of assaulting Sicknick.
‘The horrific events of Jan 6, 2021, including Officer Sicknick’s tragic, wrongful death, were a direct and foreseeable consequence of the defendants’ unlawful actions,’ states the suit. ‘The defendants are responsible for the injury and destruction that followed.’
Sicknick, who stayed at the Capitol into the evening of January 6, 2021, collapsed around 10pm. He was transported to a hospital and died less than 24 hours later. A medical examiner ruled that Sicknick died of natural causes, and prosecutors refrained from directly linking his death to the mob assault on the Capitol.
Early on Friday, the second anniversary of the insurrection, a spokesperson for Trump dismissed the suit as a frivolous attack, The New York Times reported.
Sicknick’s partner, Sandra Garza, alleged that Trump’s refusal to accept his loss in the 2020 presidential election spurred the violent assault that wound up being fatal to the cop.
‘Many participants in the attack have since revealed that they were acting on what they believed to be Defendant Trump’s direct orders in service of their country,’ the suit states.
‘Trump directly incited the violence at the Capitol that followed and then watched approvingly as the building was overrun.’
Khater and Tanios were arrested after the insurrection. Khater has pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon, while Tanios has pleaded guilty to entering and staying in a restricted building.
Tanios’s attorney Beth Gross stated that ‘the recent civil lawsuit naming him as a defendant veers well beyond what the facts support and misconstrues Mr Tanios’s actual conduct’.
Trump did not immediately comment publicly on the the second anniversary of the insurrection.
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