By Dennis Aftergut
Slate Magazine
February 22, 2022
Last week, the federal district court for the District of Columbia broke new ground in the law of the presidency. It ruled for the first time in the country’s history that a former commander in chief may be held liable in a civil lawsuit for the harm caused by his conduct while he served.
In Thompson v. Trump, Judge Amit Mehta rejected former President Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss three consolidated lawsuits brought by 11 congressional representatives and two Capitol police officers to hold Trump to account for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.