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Proud Boys And Oath Keepers Face KKK-Era Reckoning

Rep. Benny Thompson is suing Trump, Giuliani, Proud Boys, and Oath Keepers under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, and the metaphors are too obvious to ignore.

Because there is no such thing as too much legal trouble for Donald Trump and his cronies, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) is suing him for inciting the insurrection on January 6, 2021. Rudy Giuliani, The Proud Boys, and The Oath Keepers are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, which is the first of its kind under a law that was passed 150 years ago. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of racists.

The law is called the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, and Brianna Keilar explains that it was passed after the Civil War. "It was created to combat violence by the white supremacist group," she said, before dropping this delightful nugget: "A short time ago, one of the attorneys who helped file the suit told me Trump and Giuliani should expect to be deposed."

Whee!

Keilar asked former deputy assistant attorney general Harry Litman to comment with his reaction to the lawsuit.

"It's a really interesting lawsuit, Brianna," he told her. "It's under this law, as you say, passed 150 years ago in 1871 when the Ku Klux Klan, Congress heard all of these harrowing tales, they [the KKK] were killing and raping and whipping the newly freed slaves to keep them from exercising their constitutional rights."

He explained this was under a provision of the law you very rarely see that deals with the impeding of official duties. "If The Proud Boys are impeding Thompson in the performance of his official duties, which is exactly what they did, then that is a lawsuit because he is the actual plaintiff here. He is the one who was impeded." Litman said Rep. Thompson may need to also show injury in some way, but there are many paragraphs in the lawsuit addressing that.

He ended by saying, "But it really does seem to fit the facts to a T. It's like 150 years ago but in 2021, the same version with The Proud Boys playing the Ku Klux Klan."

Playing? Try "becoming."

Read the full lawsuit:


Thompson v. Trump by wonkette666

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