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Judge: Trump Security Team Must Face Jury for 2015 Attack on Protesters

Jury to determine whether president personally “authorized and condoned” violence by bodyguard Keith Schiller outside Trump Tower.

A New York state judge has denied President Trump’s bid to have a lawsuit dropped against his security team over an alleged attack on protesters outside Trump Tower during a campaign speech in 2015. A group of human-rights activists sued Trump, the Trump Organization, and Trump’s longtime bodyguard Keith Schiller over the incident, alleging that their right to free speech was violated when then-candidate Trump’s bodyguards violently disrupted a peaceful demonstration. In court documents, they alleged Schiller led a brutal crackdown on the group that sent at least one man to the hospital. Bronx Supreme Court Judge Fernando Tapia ruled the case must be heard by a jury to determine if Trump “authorized and condoned” the actions of his security team. Tapia also cited Trump’s comments after his supporters assaulted a demonstrator at a campaign rally, when he told reporters the demonstrator “should have been roughed up.”