In the Trump Files, I noted that amid Donald Trump’s 2020 election coup, the state of Georgia was the ground zero for the election of the century. If you recall, democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were running for Senate against two Republicans, David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. Ossoff and Warnock won, giving the Democrats the senate.
Georgia is ground zero again. Sitting here just a few miles from the Fulton County Jail, I watch some of the 18 defendants charged in the Fulton County racketeering case walk in and out of jail. Today, I heard Rudi Giuliani’s claim that the case against him and others is ridiculous. I also learned that Mark Meadows and Jeffrey Clark are trying to find a way to avoid arrest. A judge turned them down. However, if they don’t turn themselves in by tomorrow at noon, the Fulton County sheriff will issue arrest warrants.
Trump to Surrender Tomorrow
Tomorrow evening, ex-president Donald Trump will fly to Atlanta and drive along I-85 from the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to the Fulton County jail, which is located in downtown Atlanta. At the Rice Street jail, he will surrender by turning himself in. His lawyers have worked out a $200,000 bond, of which Trump will only have to pay $20,000.
This won’t be the first time autocrats, and would-be dictators were arrested. In her groundbreaking book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, Ruth Ben-Ghiat tells story after story about autocrats who were jailed, only later to gain the power to become dictators in their country.
The stakes that are being played out in Georgia due to the Fulton County investigation into the 2020 election in Georgia are historic. Mr. Trump and 17 others have been accused of knowingly and willfully joining a racketeering enterprise. They unlawfully tried to change the election’s outcome (in Georgia) in favor of Trump. According to the Fulton County indictment, the enterprise contained a common plan and purpose: to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and other states.
Trump’s Coup
In The Trump Files I wrote in the Epilogue this about Trump’s Coup:
Donald Trump and his co-conspirators need to be held responsible for the political violence that they executed. Federal investigators are looking into Donald Trump’s role in inciting the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. As stated in the impeachment documents filed in January 2021, Trump was held responsible for the insurrection. Although the Senate acquitted him, fifty-seven United States senators found that Trump was guilty and responsible for the insurrection. According to Michael Sherwin, a former acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, Trump is being investigated for the January 6 attack. Six people died, and hundreds were injured during the attack. Charging Trump with sedition is on the table, according to federal investigators.
Hassard, Jack. The Trump Files: An Account of the Trump Administration’s Effect on American Democracy, Human Rights, Science and Public Health (p. 457). Northington-Hearn Publishing LLC. Kindle Edition.
Trump led an insurrection in 2021, and now it appears he is being held accountable. In the Jan 6 and the Fulton County cases, Mr. Trump faces multiple felony charges. Trump’s coup is exposed in both cases, and it is quite possible that the ex-president may be convicted on some of the charges. In the Jan 6 case, he faces four felony charges, for conspiracy to defraud the United States government and an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding. In the Fulton case, Trump could be charged under Georgia’s own RICO law which would directly tie him to an enterprise that attempted to change the results of elections for president in Georgia and other states.
14th Amendment
Trump, according both Republican and Democratic scholars, could be disqualified from running for president because he does not meet the criteria stated in the United States Constitution. Trump’s eligibility for running is being questioned because of what the 14th Amendment says about people who engage in an insurrection against the United States government. Trump meets the qualifications most Americans know about:
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5, U.S. Constitution
What many people may not know, is that any one who has sworn allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, such as Trump did when he was sworn in as president on January 20, 2017. Because he “engaged in insurrection against the U.S., he can be disqualified from running for president. Here is Article 3 of the 14th Amendment:
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Article 14, Section 3, U.S. Constitution
Tonight at the Presidential debate, will any of the contenders bring up the 14th amendment, and ask president Trump that he should drop out of the race? Probably not. But there are scholars and activists who will move forward to prevent him from running by using the 14th Amendment that disqualifies anyone who engaged in an insurrection.
I placed this on my FB page and in our group called. Greater Haverhill Indivisible. I added two of thequotes from Jack to start a conversation; many of the same people from GHI I will see at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday and we continue our conversations . I hope there are lots of conversations going on this week about the current circumstances.