Donald Trump is at risk of being ruled liable over lawsuits related to actions during his presidency after a federal judge rejected a claim of absolute immunity in one suit.
On Monday, Washington District Judge Emmet Sullivan said Trump cannot use the presidential immunity defense in response to a lawsuit brought forward by the NAACP and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization.
The suit claims Trump and the Republican National Committee committed civil rights violations by attempting to disenfranchise voters in the days after the 2020 Election by ways of "targeted harassment, intimidation, and efforts to prevent the complete counting and certification" of valid ballots in a number of states.
Trump's legal team had attempted to argue that the former president is "absolutely immune" from damages liability as his actions were on the "outer perimeter" of his official responsibility.
In his ruling, Sullivan said that Trump cannot use absolute immunity to defend himself from the accusations he faces in the lawsuit, but did not determine that the former president could be liable for what the NAACP and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization claim.
"If former President Trump disrupted the certification of the electoral vote count, as plaintiffs allege here, such actions would not constitute executive action in defense of the Constitution," Sullivan wrote.
"For these reasons, the court concludes that former President Trump is not immune from monetary damages in this suit."
The suit from the NAACP and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization is not the only one the former president's legal team has attempted to claim presidential immunity from.
In 2019, former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll launched a defamation lawsuit over comments Trump made denying that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in New York in the mid-1990s.
The suit said that Trump defamed Carroll's character by accusing her of lying about the alleged assault to sell books and "make money," as well as denying the rape occurred because "she's not my type."
Trump's legal team said that he was doing his job as then-president by denying the rape allegations.
Following Sullivan's ruling, attorney Rachel Fiset, co-founder and managing partner of Zweiback, Fiset & Zalduendo law firm, has suggested that the former president could be at risk of being found liable in the defamation lawsuit if another judge agrees his comments are not protected by presidential immunity.
"Trump is continually attempting to hide behind the immunity offered to presidents acting in their official duties as president. In Trump's very unusual presidency, however, he attempted acts that arguably exceed the boundaries of his official duties," Fiset told Newsweek.
"For instance, seeking to overturn an election illegally and disenfranchise voters for his own gain can be found to go beyond official duties and cross into acts that are 'purely political' and therefore subject to liability as this ruling supports.
"Likewise, as defamation could be found to be outside the boundaries of 'official duties,' Trump risks liability in Ms. Carroll's suit against him as well," Fiset added.
On November 25, Carroll launched a new defamation lawsuit against Trump, covering a time when he was not president.
The new defamation lawsuit was filed in response to Trump repeating the "not my type" remark about Carroll in an October 12 statement posted on Truth Social while calling the initial suit as a "complete con job."
Alongside a fresh defamation claim, Carroll filed a battery suit against Trump while taking advantage of the New York's Adult Survivors Act becoming active.
The law, which was passed in May, allows alleged adult sexual assault victims one year to bring lawsuits even if the statute of limitations has expired.
Trump's legal team has been contacted for comment.
Correction 12/01/2022: This article has been amended to attribute quote to Rachel Fiset.
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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