White nationalist Matthew Heimbach, who allegedly assaulted a protester at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump in March 2016, on Monday filed a lawsuit claiming that Trump directed him and other rally attendees to remove protesters.
Heimbach denied “physically assaulting” protesters in the suit. He nevertheless claimed that he acted “in self defense” and “in reasonable defense of others,” and did so “pursuant to the directives and requests of Donald J. Trump and Donald J. Trump for President.”
“Any liability must be shifted to one or both of them,” the suit reads.
On Friday, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit by three protesters assaulted at the same campaign rally to move forward, agreeing that Trump’s call for supporters to remove the protesters “at least implicitly encouraged the use of violence or lawless action.”
Read the filing:
