Trump coup coming, conviction needed

by Tom Maertens

Almost a year has passed since the coup attempt of Jan. 6. Over 700 people have been indicted for that insurrection; several have been convicted and one sent to prison for as long as 63 months, but so far, nobody has been indicted for planning and organizing the attack.

Newly disclosed texts to ex-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, show that planning for the coup began in November 2020. The 51-page report by the Jan. 6 Committee documents Meadows’ efforts to help Trump overturn his defeat, including encouraging Republican state legislators to send “alternate” (read: fraudulent) slates of electors to Congress.

The New York Times has identified six Republican members of the House who plotted with Meadows to disrupt the Jan. 6 vote certification: Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Louis Gohmert of Texas, and Mo Brooks of Alabama.

They bombarded the Justice department with false claims of voting irregularities, pressured state legislatures to conduct “audits” to cast doubt on the election and spread allegations of fraud. This was after Attorney General Bill Barr had said there was no fraud, and the Trump campaign lost more than 60 lawsuits claiming vote fraud. An AP investigation found only 475 cases of possible vote fraud nationwide in 2020 out of 155 million votes.

Meadows also directed the efforts of John Eastman, Trump’s lawyer, who formulated the plan for Vice President Mike Pence to block the electoral vote count, and of Jeffrey Clark, who conspired with Trump to replace the acting attorney general so he could disqualify enough votes for Trump to “win.”

Laurence Tribe, the retired Harvard Law School professor and an eminent constitutional law expert, has written that if Attorney General Merrick Garland doesn’t prosecute Trump, the rule of law is “out the window,” and further, if President Joe Biden and Garland don’t pursue Trump, the country is in “desperate trouble.”

He cited 18 U.S. Code § 2383 — Rebellion or Insurrection: “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”

In addition, 18 U.S. Code § 2384 — Seditious Conspiracy, prescribes fines or imprisonment for not more than 20 years for those who “by force (attempt) to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof…”

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wy., pointed to USC §1512 and asked: “Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congress’s official proceeding to count electoral votes?” She quoted the statute: “Whoever corruptly … obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.”

U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ruled recently that a corrupt effort to interrupt the counting of the electoral votes is a federal crime punishable by 20 years in prison, even if no violence was contemplated.

Three retired army generals, alarmed by the participation of active and former military in the insurrection, wrote in the Washington Post that preparations must begin immediately to counter the likely 2024 insurrection: “We are chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time.”

Similarly, Barbara F. Walter, a political science professor at University of California, San Diego, who tracks political instability abroad for the CIA, has written that: “We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe.”

Using the analytical methods the CIA employs to judge political instability overseas, she concluded the U.S. has already gone through the “pre-insurgency” and “incipient conflict” phases, and approached the final “open insurgency” phase during the capital attack.

This is Trump’s doing: district court judge Amy Berman Jackson said at the sentencing hearing of one of the rioters that she believed Trump stoked the riot and should be held accountable. He nonetheless continues to stir up the gullible by promoting the Big Lie.

The consequences, according to a new survey by Bright Line Watch, are that 17 percent of those strongly identifying as Republicans support violence to restore Trump to power, and 39 percent favor doing everything possible to prevent Democrats from governing effectively.

Tom Maertens served as a White House National Security Council director under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.