WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorneys for President Donald Trump urged a federal judge on Friday to rule that Trump is entitled to presidential immunity from civil claims that he instigated a mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta didn't rule from the bench after hearing arguments from Trump attorneys and lawyers for Democratic members of Congress who sued the Republican president and allies over the Jan. 6. 2021, attack.
Trump spoke to a crowd of his supporters at the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House before the mob’s attack disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Democratic President Joe Biden’s electoral victory.
Trump's attorneys argue that his conduct leading up to Jan. 6 and on the day of the riot is protected by presidential immunity because he was acting in his official capacity.
“The entire point of immunity is to give the president clarity to speak in the moment as the commander-in-chief,” Trump attorney Joshua Halpern told the judge.
The lawmakers' lawyers argue Trump can't prove he was acting entirely in his official capacity rather than as an office-seeking private individual. And the U.S. Supreme Court has held that office-seeking conduct falls outside the scope of presidential immunity, they contend.
“President Trump has the burden of proof here,” said plaintiffs' attorney Joseph Sellers. “We submit that he hasn't come anywhere close to satisfying that burden.”
At the end of Friday's hearing, Mehta said the arguments gave him “a lot to think about” and he would rule “as soon as we can.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chaired the House Homeland Security Committee, sued Trump, his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani and members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers extremist groups over the Jan. 6 riot. Other Democratic members of Congress later joined the litigation.
The civil claims survived Trump's sweeping act of clemency on the first day of his second term, when he pardoned, commuted prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of all 1,500-plus criminal cases stemming from the Capitol siege. Over 100 police officers were injured while defending the Capitol from rioters.
Halpern said immunity enables the president to act “boldly and fearlessly.”
“Immunity exists to protect the president's prerogatives,” he said.
Plaintiffs' lawyers argue that the context and circumstances of the president's remarks on Jan. 6 — not just the content of his words — are key to establishing whether he is immune from liability.
“You have to look at what happened leading up to January 6th,” Sellers said.
FILE - President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV named a new archbishop of Westminster on Friday in another high-profile appointment that signals a generational shift in the English-speaking Catholic hierarchy.
Leo tapped Bishop Richard Moth, 67, to replace the retiring Cardinal Vincent Nichols, 80, as the London-based archbishop of the largest British diocese in terms of Catholic population and priests.
The appointment came a day after Leo named Bishop Ronald Hicks, 58, to succeed the retiring Cardinal Timothy Dolan as archbishop of New York, one of the biggest and most important archdioceses in the U.S.
Dolan and Nichols had been two of the heavyweight English-speaking cardinals for more than a decade, both of them appointed to their high-profile jobs in 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.
Nichols would become more closely associated with Pope Francis, who made him a cardinal in 2014 and kept him on the job well beyond the normal retirement age for bishops of 75.
Dolan, who is affiliated more with the conservative wing of the church, had submitted his resignation to Francis in February, as required by church law when he turned 75. Leo accepted it 10 months later, soon after Dolan finalized the creation of a $300 million settlement fund for victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Leo has indicated that he wants to respect the 75-year-old retirement age norm more vigorously going forward, as a way to reinvigorate the church leadership, though he allowed that there could still be two-year extensions granted for cardinals.
Leo made the comments last month in a speech to Italian bishops, saying the church has to “constantly renew itself” to confront today’s challenges. “We must prevent inertia from slowing necessary change, even for good intentions,” he said on Nov. 25.
Moth was born in Chingola, Zambia, and has served as bishop of Arundel and Brighton since 2015. Prior to that, he was bishop to the British armed forces.
He takes over at Westminster Cathedral, which is considered the mother church for Catholics in England and Wales.
In another appointment announced Friday, Leo accepted the resignation of Bishop Gerald Barbarito, 75, as bishop of Palm Beach, Florida, and named as his replacement the Rev. Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, currently pastor of the Our Lady of Sorrows church in the Queens borough of New York City.
With 17,000 congregants in the mostly Hispanic neighborhood of Corona, the church is the largest parish in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which also oversees churches in Queens. It was particularly hard-hit during COVID-19, losing more than 100 of its parishioners.
Rodriguez has been a staunch advocate for migrants, who make up most of his congregants, and he is now leading the diocese that is home to President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club. Rodriguez said in an interview on Friday that the Catholic Church wants to help the president to do better.
Catholic leaders in the U.S. have denounced the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which has split up families, incited fears and upended life in American churches and schools that serve migrant communities. The administration has defended the crackdown as safeguarding public safety and national security.
“When it comes to enforcing immigration laws, we shouldn’t be enforcing them by focusing on deporting 5-year-olds, 12-year-olds, 9-year-old kids, people that have never committed any crime," he said. "So, we’re here to help. We’re willing to help, and God willing, we will.”
Associated Press reporter Luis Henao contributed from Princeton, New Jersey.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
From left, outgoing archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Bishop Richard Moth and the cardinal's press secretary Alexander des Forges sit, during a press conference announcing Bishop Moth as the new Archbishop, replacing Cardinal Nichols as the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, in the Throne Room of Archbishop's House, Westminster, London, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
Outgoing archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Vincent Nichols and Bishop Richard Moth arrive for a press conference announcing Bishop Moth as the new Archbishop, replacing Cardinal Nichols as the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, in the Throne Room of Archbishop's House, Westminster, London, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
Outgoing archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols, left, listens to Bishop Richard Moth speaking during a press conference announcing him as the new Archbishop of Westminster, replacing Cardinal Vincent Nichols as the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, in the Throne Room of Archbishop's House, Westminster, London, Friday Dec. 19, 2025. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
Bishop Richard Moth speaks during a press conference announcing him as the new Archbishop of Westminster, replacing Cardinal Vincent Nichols as the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, in the Throne Room of Archbishop's House, Westminster, London, Friday Dec. 19, 2025. (Jonathan Brady/PA via AP)
