Capitol police officers sue Donald Trump and his allies over riot

The suit also names the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers and Roger Stone among the co-defendants

Seven Capitol Police officers are suing Donald Trump and almost 20 members of right-wing extremist groups and political organisations, accusing them of plotting to disrupt the 2020 election through the 6 January Capitol riot.

The groups named in the suit include violent right-wing gangs like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, as well as Trump allies and associates like conservative advisor Roger Stone.

Mr Trump is facing similar lawsuits, though this is the first to claim that he directly worked with the other groups and organisations named in the defence.

Five of the seven Capitol officers behind the suit are Black, and included in the filing are descriptions of the abuse – which often included racial slurs – they received on the day of the attack.

The officers’ accounts include stories of being beaten, maced, pelted with batteries and being temporarily blinded.

According to The New York Times, the lawsuit argues that Mr Trump and his co-defendants violated the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, which prohibits people from carrying out violent action in an attempt to interfere with the democratic process.

The plaintiffs also accuse the defence of committing “bias-motivated acts of terrorism”.

The FBI recently said there was little evidence to suggest the Capitol riot was a coordinated attack. However, that assessment applies to the individual rioters, and not necessarily to Mr Trump and other White House officials.

On Wednesday, the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot filed an expansive records request on Mr Trump and many of his allies in an effort to understand exactly where they were and what they were doing leading up to and during the attack.

Mr Trump's response to the last two cases aimed at tying him to the attacks on 6 January – one filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the other by Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell – has been to seek dismissal of the charges. He justifies his requests by claiming immunity from civil litigation since he was serving as president on 6 January.

The new lawsuit will attempt to expand the conspiracy charge beyond 6 January by tying the start of Mr Trump’s false election fraud narrative – around May 2020 – to the riot that would come months later.

The filing also hopes to tie Mr Trump to the Proud Boys extremist gang, which he told to “stand back and stand by” during a presidential debate in September.