Trump seeks delays in Jan. 6 civil suits during immunity appeal

Police officers and Democratic lawmakers suing to hold Donald Trump liable for violent riots at the US Capitol more than five years ago face a new round of delays as the president continues to press for immunity against their claims.

Trump is appealing a federal judge’s March decision rejecting his latest effort to have the consolidated set of lawsuits tossed out. Separately, the Justice Department is challenging part of the same ruling that denied its effort to step into the litigation and effectively take over the defense. Those challenges could take months or even years to play out.

In the meantime, Trump’s personal attorneys argued in a new filing this week that he shouldn’t be forced to turn over information, documents and other evidence to the plaintiffs until the immunity question is fully resolved. That move could stretch out the time frame of the legal proceedings further even if he ultimately loses on appeal.

The immunity fight has already delayed the cases for several years as Trump appealed an earlier court loss on the issue. The lawsuits over the violence and disruption on Jan. 6, 2021, are among the few remaining cases that predate Trump’s return to the White House. He’s accused of inciting his supporters to attack the Capitol as lawmakers met in a joint session as part of a broader effort to overturn his 2020 election loss to former President Joe Biden.

US District Judge Amit Mehta has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s claims for immunity, including most recently in a March 31 opinion. The judge wrote that although Trump was president during key moments at issue in late 2020 and early 2021 — such as a rally near the White House on the morning of Jan. 6 — he was acting as a candidate and not an officeholder.

The fact that Trump wasn’t acting in his official capacity as president at the time also knocked out the Justice Department’s efforts to get involved, Mehta concluded. For most of the litigation, Trump has been represented by private counsel. After Trump was sworn in last year, the Justice Department filed papers arguing to substitute the US government as the defendant, since in most instances government employees can’t be personally sued for actions they take as part of their job.

Lawyers for the police officers and lawmakers are due to respond to Trump’s request to pause the lawsuits by May 8. They’re expected to oppose it, according to the president’s filing on Wednesday. A lawyer for one of the lead sets of challengers declined to comment.

Trump appealed the first time Mehta ruled that he wasn’t entitled to immunity in early 2022. That appeal took nearly two years to be resolved. An appellate panel rejected Trump’s most sweeping arguments for absolute immunity, but left the door open for him to raise more specific arguments for why his actions leading up to the Jan. 6 attack were official conduct that should be shielded from lawsuits.

He renewed his immunity claim days after he was sworn into office in January 2025.