Reps. Swalwell, Gomez Sue Trump for ‘Emotional Distress on Members of Congress’
Democratic California Reps. Eric Swalwell and Jimmy Gomez filed a lawsuit against former President Donald Trump on Friday, alleging, among other issues, that he inflicted emotional distress upon them.
“As a direct and foreseeable consequence of the Defendants’ false and incendiary allegations of fraud and theft, and in direct response to the Defendants’ express calls for violence at the rally, a violent mob attacked the U.S. Capitol,” said a filing in the case. “Many participants in the attack have since revealed that they were acting on what they believed to be former President Trump’s orders in service of their country.”
The suit, filed in the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, also named the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., as well as Rudy Giuliani, who served as an attorney to the president, and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-MO). Each of the men spoke at the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C. that preceded unrest in the nation’s capital.
Evidence cited in the lawsuit included a statement by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who said in a February speech on the Senate floor that Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the mob that entered the Capitol. It also quoted Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), who said Trump could be held accountable “in a court of law.”
Trump spokesman Jason Miller responded to the lawsuit by alluding to last year’s news that Swalwell briefly engaged in a relationship with Christine Fang, a Chinese spy who provided assistance to his campaign. “Eric Swalwell is a low-life with no credibility who got caught ‘dating’ the Chinese spy Fang-Fang and makes disgusting bodily noises on national television,” Miller said. “Now, after failing miserably with two impeachment hoaxes, ‘Mr. Fang-Fang’ is doing the bidding of his Chinese masters and attacking our greatest President with yet another witch hunt. It’s a disgrace that a compromised Member of Congress like Swalwell still sits on the House Intelligence Committee.”
Watch above via CNN.
