Donald Trump is facing yet another new lawsuit this one from a NJ parolee | Kelly – NorthJersey.com

Arnett Thomas has filed a federal class action lawsuit charging Donald Trump with excess deaths of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. NorthJersey.com

Arnett Thomas never thought he would be battling Donald Trump in court.

After all, Thomas is a convicted murderer. He spent two decades in a variety of New Jersey prisons before his release in 2000.

Trump is,well, confined to a prison of his own in Florida, banned from Twitter and other social media platforms but nevertheless threatening to run again for the White House.

But sometimes it takes a guy who knows something about wrongdoing to understand when something is wrong.

This is how Thomas, now 71, disabled and living in a government-sponsored housing complex in Orange, came to file a lawsuit in federal court in Newark that blames Trump for Americas massive and growing COVID-19 death toll.

The former president literally became the very domestic enemy to the Constitution he swore to defend, Thomas wrote in his 29-page class-action lawsuit, whichnow includes more than 75 co-plaintiffs.

So far, Trump has not responded.

But Thomas is talking.

Arnett Thomas, of Orange, has filed a federal class action lawsuit in New Jersey charging former President Donald Trump with excess deaths of Americans by his mishandling the response to COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Amy Newman, NORTHJERSEY.COM/ USA TODAY NETWORK)

For starters, Thomas says hes looking for $1 trillion from Trump as a punishment for the nearly 570,000 deaths in America from COVID-related causes, as well as the ancillary economic and psychological problems for many others who lost jobs or fell into a deep depression from too much home confinement.

The point of all of this is how Trump dealt with the pandemic, Thomas said in an interview. He drove people to dying.

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On one level, Thomas legal joust with the former president is little more than a quixotic pipe dream that seems more suited to a skit on "Saturday Night Live." Thomas is not an attorney. Hes trying to entice one to take the case. He wrote the lawsuit himself, citing all manner of federal statutes and the U.S. Constitution.

Its not exactly the sort of game planthat usually succeeds in the heady atmosphere of a federal courtroom or, for that matter, even in the more pedestrian setting of a local traffic court.

But Thomas legal crusade is significant nonetheless. It reflects the deep-seated anger at Trumps behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic especially in Thomas African American community in Orange and Newark.

"Everything Trump has done since hes been in office has been really shady and all backwards and messed up," said one of the lawsuit's co-plaintiffs, Kyani Robinson, 21, a landscaper who lives in Roselle and happens to be one of Thomas' nephews.

Trump allowed the disease to spread, Thomas added. What he did was politically motivated. If Trump would have handled this pandemic in a proper way, he would have been elected [again]. Trump got kicked out because of the way he handled it.

President President Donald J. Trump elbow bumps Ariz. Gov. Doug Ducey during a Make America Great Again Rally in Tucson, Ariz. Oct.19, 2020.(Photo: Michael Chow, Michael Chow/The Republic)

American history is riddled with unpopular presidents who left behind a small army of critics and reservoirs of hatred from various corners of America when they left office. Exhibit A is Richard Nixon. But the list of unpopular ex-presidents also runs from Herbert Hoover to Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter.

Now there is Trump.

While the former president can still point to numerous admirers, especially on Americas right flank, he has nevertheless inflamed a whole new spirit of distaste, especially among moderates and progressives. At the same time, Trump is also being targeted by prosecutors in New York, for his business activities, and in Washington, for his possible role in the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol by mobs of followers on Jan. 6.

Now comes the lawsuit by Thomas.

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This story begins in prison.

When youre doing time for murder, you have,well,lots of time on your hands. Thomas, who was convicted in a drug-related murder in the 1980s, headed to the prison library and started reading law books.

He became so adept at understanding legal principles that he filed a lawsuit on behalf of New Jersey prison inmates in 1985 that resulted in changes in rules on solitary confinement.

Fast-forward to 2020.

Arnett Thomas, of Orange, has filed a federal class action lawsuit in New Jersey charging former President Donald Trump with excess deaths of Americans by his mishandling the response to COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Amy Newman, NORTHJERSEY.COM/ USA TODAY NETWORK)

Thomas had left his prison life far behind. After he was paroled in 2000, he worked a number of jobs, including a stint as a mechanic for NJ Transit and as a utilities inspector. Finally, he cobbled together enough money to start his own contracting firm in Asbury Park.

Then came the accident at a hardware store.

Thomas needed to pick up bricks, cement and other supplies for a home remodeling job in Asbury Park. But as he perused a hardware store, a shelf of bricks fell on his head. He was officially classified as disabled, diagnosed with permanent post-concussion syndrome.

With his girlfriend of 40 years, Helene Robinson, Thomas moved into Housing Authority apartments in Orange.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thomas lost friends. He watched others lose jobs. Then he fell into a deep depression.

But with his lawsuit, hes already gained numerous fans.

Arnett Thomas is on the money, said Ronald Cowboy Wright, 81, a retired horse trainer at the Meadowlands Racetrack who lives in Newark and signed on to the lawsuit as a co-plaintiff. Arnett is a living brain.

In his lawsuit, Thomas calls Trump the domestic enemy to the United States Constitution. Along with an unprecedented partisan relationship with Republican legislators and Republican supporters, Thomas goes on to accuse Trump of creating a three-pronged Faustian deal with the devil.As a result, Thomas describes Trumps management of the COVID-19 pandemic as criminal.

Thomas points to what he calls Trumps openness to a medical concept known as herd immunity as especially troubling. Thomas claims that Trump and his advisers were open to letting the disease spread, in the belief that as more Americans became infected before a vaccine was developed, people would develop a herd immunity to the virus.

The problem here, as Thomas points out, is that the disease killed people, too.Yes, those who contracted the virus and survived developed immunity. But as this "herd" of immune survivors grew, many others perished.

Trump is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people across the expanse of America, by deploying and unleashing a natural herd immunity experiment which would contribute to five million reported COVID-19 cases and five hundred thousand deaths, Thomas wrote in his lawsuit.

Its never been conclusively proved that Trump authorizedany sort of herd immunity policy by his administration.But Trump mentioned the theory enough that critics began to wonder whether his administration was secretly hoping that COVID-19 might be defeated if a large segment of the American population became infected.

Arnett Thomas, of Orange, has filed a federal class action lawsuit in New Jersey charging former President Donald Trump with excess deaths of Americans by his mishandling the response to COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Amy Newman, NORTHJERSEY.COM/ USA TODAY NETWORK)

The debate became so intense last year that one of the key voices in Trumps anti-COVID-19 task force, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, made a point of saying in his own congressional testimony last fall that herd immunity is not the strategy of the U.S. government.

But Azars denials seemed moot when Trump began to rely on the advice of Dr. Scott Atlas, who reportedly pushed for a herd immunity policy until America could develop a vaccine to stop the pandemic.

If the Thomaslawsuit ever becomes a federal trial, the science or lack thereof behind herd immunity, as well as Trumps own disorganized efforts to battle COVID-19, would likely become a centerpiece of the case.

Thats just fine with Thomas and his co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

When you go down this road, Thomas said, you got to be true.

Thomas girlfriend,Robinson, 67, agreed.

By advocating herd immunity, Robinson said, Trump essentially reduced her and others to a human experiment."

That was unfair to me as a citizen, she said.

Another co-plaintiff, Kevin Williams, signed on to the lawsuit soon after Thomas called him and described what he was planning to do.

Williams, 61, a psychotherapist for a Philadelphia-based nonprofit, said the COVID-19 pandemic has been especially hard on Black and other minority communities.

As for Trump, Williams said he would like to see him in court.

At some point, I believe that public officials need to be held accountable, Williams said. I dont know what Trump thought he was doing, but what I can say is that its been a disaster.

That trial if it happens may take years to resolve.

For now, Thomas is sure of one true thing.

Trump is a gamer, he said. Some people can see it and some people cant.

Mike Kelly is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live life in New Jersey,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

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Donald Trump is facing yet another new lawsuit this one from a NJ parolee | Kelly - NorthJersey.com