Another U.S. Capitol Police officer has sued Donald Trump, saying the former president inflicted “physical and emotional injuries” on him by inciting the Jan. 6 riot.
“The insurrectionist mob, which Trump had inflamed, encouraged, incited, directed, and aided and abetted, forced its way over and past [Moore] and his fellow officers,” the complaint said, “pursuing and attacking them inside and outside the United States Capitol.”
The lawsuit accuses Trump of aiding and abetting assault and battery, inciting a riot and conspiring to stage an attack on the U.S. Capitol. Moore requested Trump pay for the injuries the officer sustained, which include a condition that causes persistent ringing in Moore’s ears and trouble sleeping.
The lawsuit is similar to previous actions brought by other U.S. Capitol Police officers, who have argued that Trump and his confidants should be held responsible for the violent attack on officers working on Jan. 6 and the physical and emotional trauma they suffer.
Attorneys for Trump did not respond to requests for comment on the most recent lawsuit, but they have asked that an August case filed by seven Capitol Police officers be dismissed. Trump’s lawyers have argued in past filings that he should have absolute immunity from lawsuits over official actions taken while he was in office and that his comments were protected by the First Amendment. A spokesman for the former president has also denied that Trump incited or conspired to incite violence at the Capitol.
The filing Tuesday took on those claims by citing Trump’s public comments leading up to and on Jan. 6. Moore’s attorneys argued that Trump’s supporters listened to his false claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” and responded to his calls to show up for a “wild” protest in Washington on the day Congress planned to certify Joe Biden’s victory.
Moore, 36, typically works at the Library of Congress and was not scheduled to work on Jan. 6, but he received a call the night before asking him to show up that morning, the lawsuit and his lawyers said. He spent the first half of the day in the Madison Building, where he watched the rally at the Ellipse unfold from the officer’s break room. As midday approached, he started to hear real-time updates from officers across the street at the Capitol.
“We’re getting crushed,” he heard a lieutenant yell, according to the complaint.
Just after 1 p.m., minutes after rioters first breached the barricades of Capitol, Moore and his team left the Madison Building to help their colleagues at the east side of the building. From there, the complaint details events that left Moore fearing for his life. First, a surge of rioters overwhelmed him on the East Front of the Capitol. He then heard a large explosion as he approached the Memorial Door, which he worried was a pipe bomb like the ones found earlier that day at the Republican and Democratic National committee buildings. At one point, he was temporarily deaf from three flashbangs detonated by insurrectionists, according to the complaint.
Once inside the building, Moore was one of nine officers guarding the door to the House chamber, the lawsuit said. A surge of about 100 rioters, including at least one person who was armed, rushed toward him.
“The combination of the crush of people pinning him to the wall and overwhelming chemical odor from bear spray and other chemicals, made it difficult for him to breathe,” the complaint said. Moore shouted to a colleague, “We are not going to die like this.”
A sergeant later instructed that Moore help transport members of Congress out of the House chamber. He was walking through a hallway when he heard a gunshot, which he later learned was the one that killed Ashli Babbitt. At the time, he drew his weapon, “certain he was going to end up in a gun battle,” according to the complaint.
Moore then rushed members of Congress to shelter in the Ways and Means Committee room, even pushing one member in a rolling desk chair who said he was feeling chest pain. He stayed in that room for hours, according to the complaint.
Moore arrived home at 11 p.m. He returned to work the next morning at 7 a.m. That was the beginning of a month of 12- to 16-hour shifts, the complaint said.
“He suffered from depression that he could not address,” the complaint said, “because he was too consumed with a sense of obligation to continue with his professional responsibilities.”
Paul Duggan and Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this report.