NEW YORK — Republican political operative Roger Stone asked a judge to throw out a suit filed against him by eight Capitol Police officers who allege he is liable for helping trigger the Jan. 6 riot by a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
The officers, who filed suit in Washington in August, claim there was a civil conspiracy by Stone, Trump and members of right-wing militia groups like the Proud Boys, all of whom falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen. But Stone says he can’t be sued because his comments about the election are protected by the First Amendment, and he wasn’t involved in the riot.
“Roger Stone is a political advocate who is being grouped together with other defendants with whom he has no relationship, by the political forces supporting plaintiffs,” Stone’s lawyer, Robert Buschel, said in the filing. “He is the personification of the First Amendment running, not walking.”
Stone, whose testimony is being sought by a House committee probing the attack, also said in the filing that he isn’t a racist or a white supremacist, as the officers suggest in their complaint.
