Donald Trump ran out the clock on 2020 election civil rights lawsuit

By Zoe Tillman 

Civil rights lawyers this week withdrew one of the oldest lawsuits against President-elect Donald Trump, giving up a four-year fight over whether his baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in 2020 were aimed at disenfranchising Black voters. 

It’s the latest fallout for Trump’s courtroom adversaries after his election win in November. The conclusion of the 2020 case followed Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith’s recent announcement that prosecutors would no longer pursue two federal indictments against Trump in light of the election outcome.

 

The voting rights advocates who brought the 2020 case had hoped to persuade a judge to enter an order before the November presidential contest restricting what Trump and the Republican National Committee could do if there was another contested result. The judge didn’t take action in time. 

 

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a statement that because Trump’s reelection meant he wouldn’t be constitutionally eligible to run again, they decided it was “appropriate” to end the case. US District Judge Tanya Chutkan — who also presided over one of the federal criminal cases against Trump — agreed to dismiss the lawsuit “without prejudice,” meaning the plaintiffs could raise similar claims in the future.

 

Representatives for Trump and the RNC didn’t respond to requests for comment.

 

The voting rights case was filed in late November 2020. The plaintiffs accused Trump and the RNC of focusing efforts to overturn his 2020 loss on areas in Michigan and other swing states with large populations of Black voters. They asked for money damages as well as a forward-looking order barring Trump and the RNC from engaging in similar tactics. 

 

Trump and the RNC denied the allegations. The case was in limbo for years as lawyers for Trump and the voters tangled over whether he was entitled to absolute presidential immunity. Trump lost the first round of that fight in November 2022 and appealed.

 

An appeals court ruled against Trump on the immunity question in December in a cluster of separate but related civil suits seeking to hold him liable for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. The appellate judges left open the possibility that he could revive the immunity issue later. The voting rights case went back to Chutkan. 

 

The Jan. 6 cases against Trump remain active.