The partner of a US Capitol Police officer who passed away a day after the disturbance on January 6, 2021, is suing Donald Trump for wrongful death.
On Thursday, legal action was launched against Trump on the grounds that he "intentionally riled up the crowd" that assaulted Brian Sicknick.
Capitol grounds have seen an uptick in police presence on the anniversary of the riots.
Despite the fact that there have been hundreds of convictions, the FBI maintains that there are still more.
Over 300 violent offenders from that day are still at large, according to the federal police agency.
One of them is the individual who placed pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees the evening before the riots.
The FBI stated on Wednesday that it would pay $500,000 (£420,730) to anyone who provided information that resulted in the perpetrator being apprehended.
As President Joe Biden was formally certified the winner by Congress in 2020, rioting broke out in the US Capitol.
Following Trump's speech at his rally, which was held a mile from the Capitol, the mob attacked the structure. During his address, when he pushed then-Vice President Pence to void the election results, Trump made these accusations of voting fraud.
Trump said in his address, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol. If you don’t fight like hell, you’ll not have a country anymore.”
Additionally, he encouraged people to “make their voices heard in a peaceful and patriotic manner” in the same address.
Biden, speaking at a memorial service held on Thursday at the White House, referred to the events of January 6 as an “inflexion point” in American history.
“It’s hard to believe that this could happen right here in America,” he said.
“January 6 is a reminder that there is nothing guaranteed about our democracy,” Biden added.
A female protester was shot and killed by police during the clashes. Three additional people at the Capitol that day tragically lost their lives to natural causes.
Brian Sicknick, a police officer for the Capitol, lost his life after suffering a series of strokes the day following the riots.
Sicknick was not hurt during the disturbance, but his family is suing on Thursday, claiming the aggressive crowd contributed to his untimely death.
On Thursday, his family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Trump, claiming that Sicknick had died from “the injuries that violence caused” after Trump had “intentionally riled up the crowd.
According to the complaint, “Many participants in the attack have since revealed that they were acting on what they believed to be Defendant Trump’s direct orders in service of their country.”
The lawsuit claims that Trump violated Sicknick’s civil rights, assaulted him, and was negligent, all while seeking $10 million in damages.
As of this writing, Trump has said nothing about the complaint.
In a ceremony on Thursday, President Joe Biden presented presidential citizen’s medals to officers who responded to the January 6 riots, including a posthumous medal to Sicknick, who, Biden said, “lost his life after protecting the citadel of democracy.”
Since the attacks, a congressional investigation led by Democrats has looked into any complicity on Trump’s part in sparking the unrest.
The US House committee looking into the January 6 attack requested criminal charges against Trump for obstruction and rebellion in December, making this the first occasion in US history that Congress referred a former president to be legally prosecuted.