A powerful op-ed from Laurence Tribe, Phillip Allen Lacovara, and Dennis Aftergut argued that the insurrection won’t stop until Trump is prosecuted and disqualified from holding office.
The authors wrote in the LA Times:
Luttig’s verdict should be understood as a plea for Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland to proceed toward charging Trump with federal crimes that the public record now amply establishes. Only then will this nation be able to move forward from the ongoing insurrection.
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Even without a direct charge of insurrection, allegations of such insurrectionist activities in an indictment for conspiring to defraud the United States or to obstruct an official proceeding or for seditious conspiracy might suffice for 14th Amendment disqualification if Trump were convicted.
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Holding Trump accountable — and disqualifying him from future office — would not be a partisan act, but one needed to preserve the republic.
The Republican Party is becoming more radical and dangerous to democracy by the day. It would be naive for the Justice Department to believe that the nation’s democratic institutions will hold up again if they are assaulted by Trump and his allies.
The insurrection will not be stopped until those who committed crimes against democracy are prosecuted and convicted. Nothing would send the message more thoroughly that democracy will be protected from anyone who tries to destroy it than the prosecution and conviction of Donald Trump.
Republicans have been trying for years to find a pathway to maintaining power when demographic change is making it increasingly difficult for them to win presidential elections. The GOP will only stop when the path of insurrection is closed to them.
Prosecutions, not only of the people who attacked the Capitol but of those who incited them and participated in the coup plot, are the path forward to saving democracy.
Mr. Easley is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association