The longtime partner of a U.S. Capitol Police officer who died as a result of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of loyalists to Donald Trump is suing the former president for millions of dollars, alleging that his actions led to her partner’s death.
Sandra Garza, whose partner Brian Sicknick died the day after the Capitol attack, is also suing two members of the Trump-inspired mob, Julian Elie Khater and George Pierre Tanios, for their direct physical attacks on him.
After illegally breaching the Capitol grounds, the duo attacked Sicknick with chemical spray. Sicknick collapsed at home later that evening, suffering two strokes and dying the next day at age 42.
Garza’s lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, connects Khater’s and Tanios’s actions with Trump’s incendiary words briefly before the attack. Garza is suing the three men listed in her lawsuit for $10 million each in damages.
Trump “endorsed and ratified the violent actions of the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol,” through his rhetoric on the day of the attack, motivating both Khater and Tanios, the lawsuit alleges.
“Many participants in the attack have since revealed that they were acting on what they believed to be Defendant Trump’s direct orders in service of their country,” Garza’s lawsuit states, noting that, “before directing the mob to the U.S. Capitol, Defendant Trump instructed them to ‘fight like hell’ and declared that ‘you’re allowed to go by very different rules’ and ‘you have to show strength.'”
The lawsuit goes on to allege that:
The horrific events of January 6, 2021, including Officer Sicknick’s tragic, wrongful death, were a direct and foreseeable consequence of the Defendants’ unlawful actions. As such, the Defendants are responsible for the injury and destruction that followed.
Garza, who is the personal representative for the Estate of Brian Sicknick, also referenced Trump’s words in the weeks prior to the attack on the Capitol, including his calls for his followers to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally in front of the White House on January 6; on December 19, 2020, Trump tweeted that the events of January 6 “will be wild.”
“Particularly considering Defendant Trump’s prior directive to a white supremacist group — the Proud Boys — to ‘stand by,’ Defendant Trump’s tweet was understood by his followers to be a call to violence,” Garza’s lawsuit says.
A spokesperson for Trump downplayed the lawsuit, claiming that Trump is “immune from frivolous attacks” — referring to a presidential power that allows presidents to be held to higher standards when making statements in their official capacity as president.
That argument has been rejected by a court at least once before, however. In February of last year, a federal judge tossed out that line of defense in another lawsuit purporting that Trump was partially responsible for the violent events of January 6.
“It is at least plausible to infer that, when he called on rally-goers to march to the Capitol, [Trump] did so with the goal of disrupting lawmakers’ efforts to certify the Electoral College votes,” U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said in that decision.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.