(Washington Insider Magazine) -On the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot, a Capitol Police officer filed a lawsuit alleging former President Donald Trump of contributing to her injuries incurred when a crowd of his fans invaded the US Capitol.
Filing a 57-page lawsuit in Washington, D.C.’s United States District Court, Officer Briana Kirkland claimed that Trump instigated the attack, did little to stop it, and colluded with far-right radicals to spread false information about the 2020 election.
“As the leader of this violent mob, who took their cues from his campaign rhetoric and personal Tweets and traveled from around the country to the nation’s capital at Trump’s invitation for the January 6 rally,” the lawsuit claims, Trump was in a position of extraordinary influence over his followers, who committed assault and battery on Briana Kirkland,”
“Trump, by his words and conduct, directed the mob that stormed the Capitol and assaulted and battered Briana Kirkland,” it claims.
A request for response from Trump’s spokesperson was not immediately returned.
In a recent report published in NBC News Kirkland is also requesting at least $75,000 in damages.
According to the lawsuit, “Officer Kirkland endured an odyssey in which she started as one of the twenty or so USCP officers sent to the West Front of the United States Capitol, and ended covered in chemical spray, blood, with a traumatic brain injury that would cost her a year of her personal and professional life, and physical and personal injuries that will be with her indefinitely,”
It’s the most recent legal attempt to hold Trump and his allies responsible for the events of January 6.
On behalf of seven Capitol Police officers, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a complaint in August. According to the report, Trump “worked with white supremacists, violent extremist groups, and campaign supporters to violate the Ku Klux Klan Act, and commit acts of domestic terrorism in an unlawful effort to stay in power.”
Kirkland stated in her lawsuit that fighting off the crowd left her with several injuries, including a concussion, and that she was left with a concussion.
