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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has agreed to assume responsibility for actions taken by former President Trump against protesters in 2020. In a court filing on Monday, the DOJ certified that Trump was acting within the scope of his office when he ordered the National Guard to disperse rioters near the White House following the death of George Floyd.
“On the basis of the information now available with respect to the claims set forth therein, I find that Donald J. Trump was acting within the scope of federal office or employment at the time of the incident out of which the plaintiffs’ claims arise,” wrote James Touhey Jr., head of the Torts Branch in the DOJ’s Civil Division.
Three individuals who were protesting in Lafayette Square in 2020 after Floyd’s death are seeking damages from Trump over the National Guard’s use of chemical weapons to disperse the rioting crowd. The plaintiffs allege that their constitutional rights were violated when military personnel, on Trump’s orders, used pepper balls and smoke bombs to clear and secure the square. Law enforcement officers also reportedly shoved and physically removed protesters from the area.
The DOJ has already requested that the plaintiffs’ cases be dismissed due to a lack of evidence that any constitutional rights were violated. A federal judge dismissed the majority of cases related to the incident in 2021.
With the DOJ’s certification that Trump was acting within the scope of his federal office, the department will be responsible for any liabilities found against the former president. This case provides judges with an opportunity to apply and clarify the Supreme Court’s July ruling that recognized the president’s broad immunities while conducting official business.
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