Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and the NAACP filed a lawsuit Tuesday against former President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, accusing them of conspiring with two extremist groups to block the presidential vote count by storming the U.S. Capitol.

The lawsuit, the first over the Capitol riot to name Trump, said the attack was “the intended and foreseeable culmination of a carefully coordinated campaign to interfere with the legal process required to confirm the tally of votes cast in the Electoral College.”

Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, said in response: “President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse. President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.”

Thompson and the NAACP said Trump, Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers shared a common goal “of employing intimidation, harassment, and threats” to stop the vote count. The riot was “a direct, intended, and foreseeable result” of the conspiracy, it said.

Their suit invoked the Civil Rights Act of 1871, commonly known as the Ku Klux Klan act, which allows lawsuits against government officials for claims that they conspired to violate civil rights. It was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington by a law firm specializing in such cases, Cohen, Millstein, Sellers & Toll.

Their complaint included many of the claims made against Trump by the House managers during the Senate impeachment trial and incorporated allegations made by the FBI in court documents accompanying criminal charges against members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

By repeatedly claiming that the election was stolen, Trump and Giuliani mobilized supporters and supported armed protesters, rejecting pleas to cool down the rhetoric, the suit said. At the Jan. 6 rally near the White House, the two “began stoking the crowd’s anger and urging them to take action to forcibly seize control of the process for counting and approving the Electoral College ballots.”

The lawsuit also quoted extensively from remarks Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made after the Senate voted to acquit Trump on Saturday, including his statement that “there is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day.”

The suit asks a judge to rule that the actions of the defendants violated federal law and seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Former presidents are immune from lawsuits over their official actions while in office, but they can be sued over conduct that was not part of their duties.

The defendants will likely take the next legal step by filing a motion to dismiss the case. If the lawsuit survives that initial move, the plaintiffs would begin to seek evidence through the discovery process.

Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com

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