Trump accused in lawsuit of causing wrongful death of Officer Brian Sicknick in US Capitol attack

The property of Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer who died after responding to the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol, is suing two rioters concerned within the assault and former President Donald Trump for his alleged function in egging it on.

The civil lawsuit, filed Thursday in Washington, DC’s federal court docket, provides to the 2024 presidential candidate’s troubles linked to his efforts to impede the peaceable switch of energy after his 2020 electoral loss. Trump is already a defendant in a number of different civil January 6-related civil lawsuits, the place he’s arguing his presidency makes him immune from legal responsibility.

The lawsuit from Sicknick’s property was filed the day earlier than the Capitol assault’s two-year anniversary.

“As Officer Sicknick and tons of of others—together with different law enforcement officials, elected officers, and rank-and-file employees on the Capitol—have been put in mortal hazard, and because the seat of American Democracy was desecrated by the rebel mob, Defendant Trump watched the occasions unfold on reside tv from the security of the White Home,” attorneys for Sicknick’s property and his companion Sandra Garza wrote within the grievance. “The horrific occasions of January 6, 2021, together with Officer Sicknick’s tragic, wrongful demise, have been a direct and foreseeable consequence of the Defendants’ illegal actions.”

Sicknick’s property additionally alleges a conspiracy, negligence and assault.

The lawsuit notes that Trump instructed his supporters in Washington on January 6 to “battle like hell” and “present power” in his speech earlier than the Capitol riot.

Julian Khater and George Tanios, the 2 Capitol rioters named within the swimsuit, pleaded responsible final summer time to crimes associated to the breach. They’re set to be sentenced later this month.

Through the riot, Khater took bear spray from Tanios’ backpack, spraying Sicknick and different officers of their faces and forcing them to recoil as rioters pushed ahead towards the Capitol steps.

Sicknick suffered a number of strokes and died of pure causes the day after the Capitol breach, based on a 2021 report by DC’s chief medical expert. The examiner, Francisco Diaz, informed the Washington Put up that “all that transpired” on January 6 “performed a job in his situation.”

The Sicknick wrongful demise allegation towards Trump marks probably the most critical accusation to this point that the previous president was chargeable for the January 6 rebel.

Sicknick’s attorneys are asking the court docket for damages of greater than $10 million.

Trump already faces earlier civil lawsuits introduced by Democratic lawmakers and different legislation enforcement officers who responded to the Capitol assault. DC’s federal appeals court docket is contemplating whether or not to uphold a trial choose’s ruling that Trump could possibly be held chargeable for damages for his actions within the lead as much as the riot. If that lawsuit is profitable, the Sicknick grievance is prone to comply with in its authorized footprints.

Among the identical attorneys bringing the Sicknick case additionally introduced that current riot conspiracy case. One other lawyer concerned within the Sicknick case has represented different Capitol Police officers following the assault.

Legal investigations round January 6 are ongoing, together with a probe into Trump-supported bids to disrupt Joe Biden’s win that’s now being led by particular counsel Jack Smith. In latest weeks, prosecutors have taken new investigative steps, together with acquiring paperwork from native election officers. Trump has not been criminally charged.