Just a heads up to our listeners. We'll be hearing tape from the January 6

insurrection and its aftermath, including some curse words and slurs, so be advised. Hello and welcome to the law according to Trump from amicus

slates podcast about the courts and the law. I'm Andrea Bernstein sitting in for Dahlia Lithwick for a few weeks while she takes a break.

In this series, we're taking a look at how Donald Trump deploys the law, how he's used lawyers and lawsuits and sometimes even

judges to enhance his brand, his money, and his power.

This week on the show, can the civil courts lead to accountability for Donald Trump?

On January 6, 2021, rioters egged on by the then president of the United States, beat

assaulted, tased, and bare sprayed, scores of law enforcement officers trying to defend the U.S. Capitol.

We lost my life.

My own PD, get back.

Inside the chamber of the House of Representatives, members of Congress were terrified. We need them there now, whoever you got.

How soon in the future can you have the place evacuated?

A shot rang out. It took hours for the chaos and fear to subside, more hours still for law enforcement to secure the capital,

even more for Congress to vote to certify the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

over Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Within weeks, Trump had been impeached for

incitement by the House, but acquitted by the Senate.

Immediately after that acquittal, Representative Benny Thompson with the NAACP sued Trump for conspiracy under what at the time was a dusty old law, a little used provision of the Ku Klux Klan Act of

1871, passed during reconstruction to defend the gains of the Civil War from white supremacist

mobs in the South.

The law says you can sue for civil liability if, quote,

Two or more persons in any state or territory conspired to prevent, by force, intimidation or threat, any person

from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States,

...