It’s
impeachable. It’s likely illegal. It’s a coup.
Opinion by
Columnist
Jan. 3, 2021 at 3:56 p.m. CST
When President Trump
allegedly tried firing special prosecutor Robert S. Mueller III, refused to
respond to lawful subpoenas during the investigation into the 2016 election and
committed the other acts to obstruct justice documented in the Mueller report,
he arguably violated his oath, broke the law and committed impeachable conduct.
When he tried to extort Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelensky (“I would like you to do us a favor though …”) to
create dirt to use against now President-elect Joe Biden and stonewalled
Congress’s demands for evidence, he again violated his oath, engaged in
impeachable conduct and broke the law.
In neither case did
Republicans recognize the facts before them. In neither case did they act to
remove him. That prologue brings us to his telephone call with
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Saturday.
The Post reports:
“President Trump urged fellow Republican Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary
of state, to ‘find’ enough votes to overturn his defeat in an extraordinary
one-hour phone call Saturday that election experts said raised legal
questions.” In the call, Trump asked Raffensperger to change the certified vote
that was subject to multiple recounts: “So look. All I want to do is this. I
just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won
the state.”
In fact he threatened him.
The Post reports, “During their conversation, Trump issued a vague threat to
both Raffensperger and Ryan Germany, the secretary of state’s general counsel,
suggesting that if they don’t find that thousands of ballots in Fulton County
have been illegally destroyed to block investigators — an allegation for which
there is no evidence — they would be subject to criminal liability.” Trump,
sounding like a mobster as he often does, said, “That’s a criminal offense. And
you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your
lawyer.” Nice career, there Brad. Shame if anything happened to it.
Laughably, Trump also
tried to use the Senate runoff election to pressure Raffensperger. In an
incoherent tirade, he insisted, “You have a big election coming up and because
of what you’ve done to the president — you know, the people of Georgia know
that this was a scam.” He continued: “Because of what you’ve done to the
president, a lot of people aren’t going out to vote, and a lot of Republicans
are going to vote negative, because they hate what you did to the president.
Okay? They hate it. And they’re going to vote. And you would be respected,
really respected, if this can be straightened out before the election.” I have
no idea what “vote negative” means or how voters’ anger would jeopardize the
Republican Senate contenders. In any event, now that the tape has been
revealed, Trump’s conduct will, we should hope, undercut the Republicans.
I have never favored
prosecuting Trump for his conduct in office. But pressuring a campaign official
to change the vote tally is a federal offense, as former Justice Department
inspector general Michael Bromwich tweeted Sunday, citing Title 52 U.S.
Section 20511. That law states: “A person,
including an election official, who in any election for Federal office …
knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to deprive or defraud
the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process,
by … the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the
person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the
State in which the election is held” is subject to imprisonment of up to five
years.
Threatening
Raffensperger with criminal consequences is also arguably extortion. Title 18
Section 875 of the U.S. Code reads: “Whoever, with intent to extort from
any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of
value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing
any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee or of another
or the reputation of a deceased person or any threat to accuse the addressee or
any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not
more than two years, or both.”
Alternatively, the
state attorney general of Georgia might investigate and bring applicable
charges under state law. That would have one clear advantage: Trump cannot
receive a federal pardon for state crimes.
There must be a
response to a president who exploits his office for the purpose of overthrowing
an election. The evidence is on tape. The next attorney general should move
forward, if for no other reason, to deter further attempts at such reprehensible
conduct. I would suggest impeachment as well, which could include a ban on
holding office in the future, but we know already Republicans will defend
anything Trump does.