In a last-ditch effort to prevent President-elect Donald Trump from assuming office, a pair liberal lawyers are urging Congress to invoke a little-known provision of the 14th Amendment to bar him from the presidency.
Writing in The Hill, lawyers Evan Davis and David Schulte claim that Trump was ‘involved’ in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol Building four years ago, and as such, that makes him ineligible to hold office under an obscure provision of the 14th Amendment — despite the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court has struck this down since Trump was never tried for, much less convicted of, “insurrection.”
“Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming,” they wrote in their op-ed.
“The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel,” they continued, referencing some state courts in Democrat-controlled states that ruled Trump was guilty of the offense.
The authors reference Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which stipulates that anyone who has participated in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or provided aid to its enemies, is disqualified from holding federal or state office. They argue that Trump’s actions fit this criteria and assert that Congress has the authority to prevent him from taking office.
You people are sick https://t.co/u2GOCp1mfQ
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) December 26, 2024
“The second contested proceeding was the Colorado five-day judicial due process hearing where the court ‘found by clear and convincing evidence that President Trump engaged in insurrection as those terms are used in Section Three,’” they claimed. “The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed. On further appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the court held that states lack power to disqualify candidates for federal office and that federal legislation was required to enforce Section 3. The court did not address the finding that Trump had engaged in insurrection.”
“Finally, there is the bipartisan inquiry of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. More than half of the witnesses whose testimony was displayed at its nine public hearings were Republicans, including members of the Trump administration,” they wrote, without mentioning all of the evidence hidden by that committee exonerating the then-former president and implicating others in testimony that turned out to be false.
They concluded: “To make an objection under the Count Act requires a petition signed by 20 percent of the members of each House. If the objection is sustained by majority vote in each house, the vote is not counted and the number of votes required to be elected is reduced by the number of disqualified votes. If all votes for Trump were not counted, Kamala Harris would be elected president.”
The appeal to Congress, which reeked of desperation, failed as lawmakers did their constitutional duty and certified Trump’s victory on Jan. 3.
Meanwhile, The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway said during a Fox News segment earlier this week that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) gave a gift to her former party when she took a “toxic” trait with her to the Democratic Party.
Hemingway and host Maria Bartiromo were discussing President Joe Biden’s decision to award the Medal of Freedom to Cheney, the country’s highest civilian award, which both of them found highly inappropriate given some of Cheney’s alleged criminality while serving as co-chair of the highly partisan Jan. 6 Committee.
Hemingway said that ultimately, Cheney took “her very unpopular, politically toxic, neocon interventionism” to the Democrats.
“Liz Cheney, in the course of running this committee to supposedly investigate the January 6th incident at the capitol, obstructed justice, witness-tampered. We have lots of reason to believe she witness-tampered with [former assistant to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows] Cassidy Hutchinson, getting involved in that woman’s actual legal representation. She hid evidence that exonerated Donald Trump,” Hemingway said.
“So Liz Cheney, as awful as her behavior has been in these last few years, she did give Republicans this gift of taking her very unpopular, politically toxic, neocon interventionism and moving it from the Republican Party now firmly into the Democrat Party. So for that, Republicans can be thankful,” she added.
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