The Justice Department has agreed that the federal government will foot the bill if former President Donald Trump is found liable for violating the rights of protesters when National Guard troops and police forcibly evicted racial justice protesters from a park near the White House in June 2020.
Justice Department lawyers said in a notice filed in federal court in Washington on Monday evening that Trump is entitled to relief from the U.S. government in the civil case because the allegations in the lawsuit arise from his work as president.
“Based on the information now available … I am of the opinion that Donald J. Trump was acting within the scope of his federal office or employment at the time of the incident from which plaintiffs’ claims arise,” wrote James Touhey Jr., chief of the Torts Branch of the DOJ’s Civil Division.
Justice Department lawyers also filed a motion to dismiss the claims against Trump.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the developments.
An attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit — one of several lawsuits stemming from the removal of protesters from Lafayette Park amid nationwide protests for civil justice over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police — did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s the latest chance for the courts to weigh Trump’s conduct in office and whether he can be held legally accountable for his actions as president. The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in July concluded that presidents enjoy broad criminal immunity for actions considered part of their official duties.
The Justice Department’s decisions to act on Trump’s behalf in civil cases have been controversial in the past.
In September 2020, then-Attorney General Bill Barr drew criticism for his decision to take over Trump’s defense in a civil defamation lawsuit brought against Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll over his statements denying her allegation that he raped her in a department store fitting room in the 1990s.
After President Joe Biden was sworn in in 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland initially stuck to his guns, prompting complaints from Democrats that the Justice Department was fighting for Trump in a case involving deeply personal allegations.
Last year, citing new factual developments, the Justice Department reversed course and dropped its support for Trump in that case. Carroll ultimately won judgments against Trump for $83.3 million in a separate lawsuit directly related to her sexual abuse claims and $5 million in the original defamation case.
The Justice Department’s move to take on Trump’s liability in the lawsuit stemming from the dispersal of the Lafayette Square protest came more than four years after the incident, as the trial in the case and related lawsuits has been slow to move forward. The former president was initially named as a defendant in the case only in his official capacity, which would not allow for monetary damages.
In March, however, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich granted the plaintiffs permission to amend their lawsuit to seek damages from Trump. The lawsuit was amended the following month to hold him personally liable.
The Justice Department settled some of the lawsuits over Lafayette Square in 2022 and agreed to adjust Park Police and Secret Service policies to better protect protesters.
