It’s now clear that Donald Trump was the leader of a large, complicated, wide-reaching coup to overthrow the 2020 election. He involved many people in his seditious plans, from those in his cabinet and in Congress to gullible “true believers” who are just part of his cult of personality. This is becoming more of an accepted premise now even from lawmakers, politicians and judges. It’s very frustrating that it has been so long removed from January 6th to realize exactly what Trump did, especially given that he did many of his treasonous acts in plain site. Recently a judge gave an opinion that summarizes the coup and Trump’s role in it.
From Lawfare:
It is no exaggeration to say that the history of the United States has never seen an account of a president’s conduct quite so devastating as the first nine pages of Judge David Carter’s opinion of March 28 in Eastman v. Thompson. The opinion, legally speaking, concerns the Jan. 6 committee’s efforts to secure emails from John Eastman, the law professor who provided President Trump with advice aimed at overturning the 2020 election.
The entire judge’s opinion can be downloaded and read here. The opinion reads like a report of the crimes.
“Carter’s decision was at once pedestrian and remarkable. Pedestrian, because all the 44-page opinion did was methodically recite the law and apply it to the facts. Remarkable, because of where its analysis inexorably led: that a sitting president of the United States, with the help of his lawyer, “more likely than not” violated two federal criminal laws in a desperate effort to keep himself illegally in power.” – Washington Post
Trump also commited especially egregious election fraud in Georgia. When he called the Secretary of State after the 2020 election he tried to convince Brad Raffensperger that the election was full of fraud, even though in Georgia we had already done several recounts, which had confirmed the fact that Joe Biden won the election in Georgia decisively. From the opinion:
“When Secretary Raffensperger pushed back against these requests, the President warned of public anger and threatened criminal consequences.11 The President interspersed the conversation with specific fraud claims—dead people voting, absentee ballot forgeries, trucks ferrying illegal ballots, and machines stuffed with “unvoted” ballots.12 Mr. Raffensperger debunked the allegations “point by point” and explained that “the data you have is wrong;” however, President Trump still told him, “I just want to find 11,780 votes. … ”
The next day, President Trump attempted to elevate Jeffrey Clark to Acting Attorney General, based on Mr. Clark’s statements that he would write a letter to contested states saying that the election may have been stolen and urging them to decertify electors.14 The White House Counsel described Mr. Clark’s proposed letter as a “murder-suicide pact” that would “damage everyone who touches it” and commented “we should have nothing to do with that letter.”15 President Trump eventually did not promote Mr. Clark after multiple high-ranking members of the Department of Justice threatened mass resignations that would leave the Department a “graveyard.”
Will AG Merrick Garland, head of the DOJ, act soon enough to save our democracy from Republicans, and from Trump’s next coup in 2024?
Common Dreams writes what most of us are thinking. vEnough. It is Time for Merrick Garland to Act on Trump’s Coup Plot. There is no legal ruling or precedent holding back our DOJ from acting and indicting Trump and his co-conspirators.
“Under DOJ guidelines, FBI agents can open investigations when “facts or circumstances reasonably indicate that a federal crime has been, is being, or will be committed.” The guidelines instruct that “the standard of ‘reasonable indication’ is substantially lower than probable cause.”
President Biden also wishes the Attorney General would move on prosecuting Trump more quickly. (NYTimes)
The attorney general’s deliberative approach has come to frustrate Democratic allies of the White House and, at times, President Biden himself. As recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments. And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr. Garland said that he and the career prosecutors working on the case felt only the pressure “to do the right thing,” which meant that they “follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”
For even more details on Trump’s coup attempt, which will probably spill over into 2024, see The Guardian’s article “A roadmap for a coup“. So many reporters have written about Trump’s coup attempt, it’s hard to imagine why very little has been done about it.
This was part of John Eastman’s wild recommendation to VP Mike Pence:
Outrageous! But many people knew about this plan and did nothing to stop it. In fact, even members of Congress were in on the coup! People like Marjorie Taylor Green, Paul Gosar, Mo Brooks, and many others not only knew about the coup plans but tried to help it along.
Trump still has a powerful cult and people who will gladly do anything he says. This is why it’s imperative that Trump cannot be allowed to ever run for office again, and that our Department of Justice prosecutes him for the crimes he has already committed.
