A federal Kentucky judge has ruled that President Donald Trump's rhetoric during a campaign rally last year provoked violence against three protesters, rejecting his defense that it was free speech.
Kashiya Nwanguma, Molly Shah, and Henry Brousseau, said they attended the Louisville, Kentucky, rally last March to "peacefully protest Trump." His supporters then shoved, punched, and forcibly removed them from the event after the then presidential candidate yelled, "get 'em out of here" several times.
US District Judge David J. Hale ruled Friday that the suit against Trump, his campaign, and three of his supporters will go forward. The president's lawyers tried to dismiss the suit, arguing that Trump was using free speech and was not instructing the crowd to use force. Hale disagreed, citing violence at previous Trump rallies and noting the unrest started as soon as Trump told the crowd to remove the protesters. The Supreme Court has also ruled that speech that incites violence is not protected by the constitution.
"It is plausible that Trump’s direction to “get ’em out of here” advocated the use of force," he wrote, stating that Trump should have known his statements would provoke violence. "It was an order, an instruction, a command."
The protesters had filed a lawsuit after the March 1, 2016, rally, claiming that Trump encouraged violence and that they were the targets of racial and sexist slurs.
Video captured Trump supporter Matthew Heimbach, a white nationalist, roughly shoving Nwanguma.
Hale noted this particular incident, saying that Trump's directive to "eject a black woman when several members of a group that Trump knew or should have known was a recognized hate group were present in the audience, was entirely reckless."
Trump's lawyers had argued that the three supporters did not start pushing the protesters because Trump told them to, that they were acting on their own initiative.
John Bazemore / AP
However, one of the protesters, Alvin Bamberger, later apologized for his actions. In a letter to the Korean War Veterans Association, whose uniform he wore at the rally, Bamberger recalled that “Trump kept saying ‘get them out, get them out’ and people in the crowd began pushing and shoving the protestors . . . I physically pushed a young woman down the aisle toward the exit."
As the clash unfolded, Trump told the crowd "Don't hurt 'em. If I say, 'Go get 'em,' I get in trouble with the press."
Hale pointed out that if Trump had wanted these protesters removed he would have asked his security personnel to escort them out and "instructed the intervening audience members to stop what they were doing, rather than offering guidance on how to go about it."
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