Riot Lawsuit Against Trump Gets Green Light

Judge says it's 'plausible' he incited violence
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 3, 2017 3:50 AM CDT
Trump Riot Lawsuit Gets Green Light
A protester is escorted out of a Trump rally in Louisville, Ky., last year.   (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

The Russia investigations aren't the only fallout from his successful campaign that President Trump is still dealing with. A federal judge ruled Friday that a lawsuit from three protesters who accuse Trump of inciting a riot during a campaign rally in Kentucky last year can go ahead with their complaint, CNN reports. US District Judge David Hale decided that it was "plausible" that Trump incited the use of violence at the Louisville event on March 1 last year, where he told supporters to "get 'em out of here" during a disturbance. The protesters, Henry Brousseau, Kashiya Nwanguma, and Molly Shah, say they were assaulted by Trump supporters.

The protesters are also suing two audience members they say they were assaulted by, including white nationalist Matthew Heimbach. Jeff Klusmeier, chairman of rally organizers Young Professionals for Trump, tells the Courier-Journal that the lawsuit should never have gotten this far. "If anything, they should have been arrested," he says. "They took part in promoting violence." Hale ruled that Trump at least "implicitly encouraged the use of violence or lawless action," though he rejected the claim that the other defendants should be considered agents of Trump. Hale noted that before and after the Louisville rally, there was an apparent pattern of Trump encouraging violence against protesters, the Washington Post reports. (More Donald Trump 2016 stories.)

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