Former U.S. President Donald Trump has asked an appeals court to revive his lawsuit against Twitter over his permanent suspension.
The legal brief draws an analogy with Galileo Galilei, one of the fathers of modern science who believed the earth revolves around the sun, yet was convicted of heresy by the Catholic church.
“Most people once believed these to be crackpot ideas; many still do. But crackpot ideas sometimes turn out to be true,” lawyers wrote in the suit. “The earth does revolve around the sun, and it was Hunter Biden, not Russian disinformation agents, who dropped off a laptop full of incriminating evidence at a repair shop in Delaware,” the filing reads.
“Galileo spent his remaining days under house arrest for spreading heretical ideas, and thousands of dissidents today are arrested or killed by despotic governments eager to suppress ideas they disapprove of. But this is not the American way. We believe the path to truth is forged by exposing all ideas to opposition, debate, and discussion.”
The lawsuit against former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, and the federal government seeks compensatory and punitive damages and a court order requiring Twitter to “immediately reinstate” his account, which has been suspended since Jan. 8, 2021, two days after the U.S. Capitol breach.
The former president, who was once a heavy user of Twitter with more than 80 million followers, has vowed to keep posting to his own Truth Social media platform, despite Twitter’s new owner, billionaire Elon Musk, saying that he would reinstate Trump’s account.
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The tech giant said last year it had permanently suspended Trump’s account “due to the risk of further incitement of violence” after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol as it was preparing to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential win.
Donato also denied Trump’s claim that Twitter was serving as a “state actor” when it banned his account.
