President Trump appeals to higher court to dismiss Louisville rally suit

Attorneys for Donald Trump are asking the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss a suit alleging he incited violence against protesters at a March 2016 campaign rally in Louisville. 

Trump's legal team filed the petition Thursday, seeking to reverse U.S. District Court Judge David J. Hale's "erroneous" March 2017 ruling that allowed the protesters' "tool of political sabotage" to proceed. 

Allowing the suit to continue would "inflict irreparable harm" on Trump and distract the president and his administration from their duties, wrote Washington, D.C., attorney Michael Carvin.

Earlier coverage

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The suit subjects Trump to a "...costly, exhaustive, and time-consuming discovery battle where Plaintiffs are actively seeking to depose and embarrass the sitting President, based on legal claims that are clearly meritless," reads the filing. 

Attorneys for the protesters have requested Trump be deposed in Kentucky and turn over a slew of information, including tax returns and names of "medical providers from whom Trump has sought or received any psychological" treatment, according to court papers. 

Such requests are intrusive and extraneous, claims Trump's team.

And in a motion filed last week, Trump's attorneys said deposing a sitting president is a last resort only done under extraordinary circumstances.

"The President is entitled to a protective order shielding him from any efforts by Plaintiffs to depose him..." according to the motion.

The original lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky by protesters Kashiya Nwanguma, Molly Shah and Henry Brousseau weeks after the rally at the Kentucky International Convention Center.

They claimed they were assaulted by audience members who were riled up by Trump, including white nationalist group leader Matthew Heimbach and rally attendee Alvin Bamberger.

Both Heimbach and Bamberger have said they acted at the urging of Trump. 

Video taken at the rally shows some in the crowd shouting at protesters and shoving Nwanguma toward the door after Trump said, "Get 'em out of here."

Trump's attorneys have argued that his words were protected under the First Amendment and that he wasn't intentionally advocating violence against disruptive protesters, noting he said both, "Get 'em out of here," and “Don’t hurt ’em. If I say ‘go get ’em,’ I get in trouble with the press. ...”

"Any contrary rule would destroy the practical ability of political campaigns to express their own messages at campaign rallies without being sabotaged by hostile protestors," Trump's attorney wrote. 

Trump's legal team filed a motion to dismiss the claims in May 2016, though Hale allowed most of the claims to continue, ruling that it was plausible that Trump's command advocated use of force. 

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Hale erred in allowing the suit to proceed, argues Trump's attorney, pointing to First Amendment cases he said clearly show speakers who made more incendiary statements were protected by the Constitution. 

Carvin wrote that going through the evidence collecting process would be a waste of time, as "the relevant facts and circumstances are clear from the face of the complaint, and there is no amount of discovery or fact-finding that will shed any light on whether Mr. Trump’s speech is constitutionally protected."

Attorneys for the protesters Dan Canon and Greg Belzley have yet to file a response in court, as of Monday afternoon. 

Reporter Matthew Glowicki can be reached at 502-582-4989 or mglowicki@courier-journal.com.