Thoughts on Impeachment and Conviction of Donald Trump (private citizen and resident of Mar a Lago)
There is little doubt that Trump committed impeachable offenses in trying to overthrow the newly elected President of the United States, Joe Biden. And he ought to be convicted by the Senate. Congress lived through the day’s events, which have certainly been replayed many times in their memory since.
He tried to overthrow the duly elected next President of the United States, Joe Biden during the counting of the Electoral College votes by Congress. He lost the popular vote by 7 million and the Electoral College vote by 306 to 232.
First he claimed that he had won, and the election was stolen from him. This was a complete lie. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jan/07/donald-trump/trump-clings-fantasy-landslide-victory-egging-supp/ He repeated it so frequently that many Republicans, who hoped that he had won, began to believe the lies he was telling. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-supporters-election-fraud-belief/ Republicans in Congress, who as experienced political practitioners knew better, began to parrot the Trump lies for their own political gains with his followers. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/06/us/fact-check-electoral-certification All the major news networks called the race for Biden, but the news personalities at Fox and other right wing TV and radio networks repeated the Trump lies as if they were truth. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2021/01/11/dc-riots-how-newsmax-oan-conservative-outlets-fueled-mob/6589298002/
The head of the Homeland Security’s Office of Cybersecurity, Chris Krebs stated "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised." https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/trump-fires-head-u-s-election-cybersecurity-after-he-debunked-n1248063 Trump fired him. The National Association of State Election Officials and the National Association of Secretaries of State concurred in his assessment. https://www.cisa.gov/news/2020/11/12/joint-statement-elections-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election
“59 election security researchers and computer science experts published a joint letter rejecting the President’s recent claims of election fraud. ‘We are aware of alarming assertions being made that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ by exploiting technical vulnerabilities. However, in every case of which we are aware, these claims either have been unsubstantiated or are technically incoherent,’ the group of experts said in a letter published online. ‘To our collective knowledge, no credible evidence has been put forth that supports a conclusion that the 2020 election outcome in any state has been altered through technical compromise.’” https://blog.malwarebytes.com/malwarebytes-news/2020/11/chris-krebs-director-of-cybersecurity-and-infrastructure-security-agency-fired-by-president/
The Department of Justice investigated Trumpian claims of electoral fraud; they found no evidence of electoral fraud that would change the outcomes of the election. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/doj-uncovered-widespread-fraud-change-election-results-barr/story?id=74486937 Trump then asked Attorney General Barr to step down. https://www.npr.org/2020/12/14/811276917/william-barr-to-steps-down-as-attorney-general He asked the Acting Attorney General, Chuck Rosen, to invalidate the Georgia elections results, and when he declined, Trump and a Pennsylvania Congressman initiated a plot to fire him and replace him with a more pliant lawyer. https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/trump-contemplated-firing-acting-attorney-general-over-georgia-election-results-sources-say/FGVSKTKQFZCVBIIVAXCCN65DPE/
Trump lost Georgia by nearly 12,000 votes. He asked and then threatened the Georgia Secretary of State to find him sufficient votes to overturn his loss in Georgia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW_Bdf_jGaA He asked for the resignation of and replaced the US Attorney for the Atlanta region who was unwilling to do his bidding on the Georgia election results. https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/by-written-order-of-the-president-trump-installs-u-s-attorney-to-replace-one-he-seemed-to-slam-in-raffensperger-call/
Trump lost Michigan by over 150,000 votes. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/michigan-results He brought Michigan’s GOP legislative leaders to the White House where he asked them to overthrow their voters’ decision dealing him a decisive defeat. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michigan-gop-lawmakers-reject-trumps-brazen-effort-overturn/story?id=74317220
Trump lost Pennsylvania by over 80,000 votes. He pressed the state GOP legislative leaders to overturn the election results. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/us/politics/trump-pennsylvania-house-speaker.html
Trump lost Arizona by over 10,000 votes. https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-arizona-elections-c6e1b88b94d15158208bae0ca26b72c8 He and his allies pressed the state legislature to overturn the votes of the people and tried to persuade Republican Governor Ducey not to certify Biden’s election victory. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/arizona-gop-leaders-quarrel-election-results-impact-partys/story?id=74625518 and https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/01/president-trump-slams-arizona-gov-ducey-after-election-certification/6474822002/
Trump and friends filed over 60 lawsuits seeking to invalidate the election results, and he lost every single one. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jan/08/joe-biden/joe-biden-right-more-60-trumps-election-lawsuits-l/
Then beginning in December he switched to physical intimidation. He began calling his supporters to Washington and amped up his calls encouraging violence from his supporters. https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/jan/11/timeline-what-trump-said-jan-6-capitol-riot/
He pressured and encouraged Mike Pence to overturn the election results on January 6 – a power that Pence did not have. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/05/trump-pressures-pence-election-results-455069 He pressed the Justice Department to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the election and to falsely tell Georgia election officials that there was electoral fraud and they should cancel Biden’s victory in the state. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/politics/trump-department-of-justice-supreme-court-election-results/index.html
The events of January 6 were not a spontaneous event; it was orchestrated, planned, funded by Trump and his allies. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-his-allies-set-the-stage-for-riot-well-before-january-6-11610156283 and https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-campaign-fundraiser-ellipse-rally The violence was over a year in the making with constant incitement from Trump. https://www.justsecurity.org/74138/incitement-timeline-year-of-trumps-actions-leading-to-the-attack-on-the-capitol/
Despite ample warnings of the violence to come, the Trump Administration failed to take any advance precautions to protect the US Capitol and the lawmakers, and then it failed to timely respond once it was under attack. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/15/956842958/what-we-know-so-far-a-timeline-of-security-at-the-capitol-on-january-6 Indeed while his supporters were breaking into the Capitol and seeking to capture and kill Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez during the constitutionally prescribed ritual of tallying the Electoral College votes, Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani were working their phones calling Senator Tuberville (R. Ala.) to challenge more states’ electoral results and further delay and try to derail the Congressional proceedings to affirm Biden’s victory. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/mike-lee-tommy-tuberville-trump-misdialed-capitol-riot/index.html
Some 45 Republican Senators seek to avoid the Senate trial by claiming that Trump is now a private citizen and immune from the reach of impeachment and conviction, yet that is not what the founders intended, and it is contrary to past Senate precedent. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/29/961330810/there-is-precedent-for-trying-a-former-government-official-established-145-years and https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2021-01-26/trump-impeachment-trial-faces-challenge-from-republican-senator-paul Conviction of Trump is the best and only recourse for our elected representatives to hold him accountable for his actions seeking to undermine our democracy.
We do not yet know the full extent of collaboration between Trump and his allies with groups such as Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, Q Anons or others who planned and led the assault on the nation’s Capitol. We know that Trump and his allies planned and led the movement of lies and deceit leading up to the events of January 6, and that he is plotting revenge on those Republicans who stood up to his lies in their next elections. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/us/trump-election-lie.html There’s an excellent article explaining the symbiotic signalling and relationship between Trump and his wanna-be “brown shirts” in the most recent issue of Mother Jones. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/02/trump-stochastic-terrorism-us-capitol-mob-incitement/
Since the riot, Trump has issued no apologies to Congress or to the Capitol Police whose lives he put in danger on January 6, yet he has told his supporters who invaded and trashed the US Capitol how much he loves them and what special people they are.
It is up to Republicans in the Senate as to whether they wish to continue as Trump’s enablers and excuse-makers or to stand up for our traditional values of free and fair elections and the peaceful transitions of power in our American democracy.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 2/1/21