11/22/2023 0 Comments Advanced twitter search trump![]() ![]() Section 241 also criminalizes interference with constitutional and legal privileges. While we think deprivation of voters’ rights to have their votes fairly counted is the most likely theory under this statute, there are potentially other ways the DOJ could proceed. That memo also includes an analysis of why, in the authors’ views, those defenses are generally unavailing with respect to criminal charges. Trump and his alleged co-conspirators might also venture other separate defenses to a Section 241 charge, including some or all of the nine detailed in the memo. ![]() But if Smith chooses to include the incendiary statements on the Ellipse that helped incite the violence that would ensue, the memo concludes that he is on sound legal footing and would not be forestalled by the First Amendment or other potential defenses he might raise. tweet targeting the vice president, as well as Trump’s 187 minutes of inaction despite his affirmative constitutional and legal duties to respond to and end the insurrection. ![]() He can instead focus on their pressure campaign on Pence, and Trump’s 2:24 p.m. 6.Īs explained in the model prosecution memo, Smith need not include the speeches that Trump and his possible co-conspirators John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani made on the Ellipse on Jan. With recent reporting that special counsel prosecutors have fanned out across the country investigating threats against election officials following Election Day in 2020, we will wait to see what evidence Smith may have gathered of a coordinated effort to use mob violence that may also meet the elements of Section 241 or otherwise may provide the context for Trump’s use of the political violence on Jan. But prosecuting those who attempt to use violence to deprive voters of their right to vote is not. To be sure, a violent attack on the Capitol to prevent Congress from completing its work of certifying the election of the president was unusual. 5, 2021, stating that Pence agreed with him on the power of the vice president to carry out Trump and Eastman’s plan. And it includes strong evidence such as Trump’s very purposeful false declaration on Jan. That includes Trump and Eastman’s efforts to press Pence with the more radical plan to disregard votes. Submitting an alternate slate of electors to Congress or conspiring to disregard electors from certain states is simply a variation on a familiar theme from this long list of cases: Section 241 prohibits tampering with vote-counting activity through such fraudulent means. 1938) (holding that a jury was correct in finding that ballots were falsified and other ballots were changed from Democratic to Republican by a certain ward’s Republican Committeewoman). 1937) (county election officials “conspired to count, record, and certify the ballots of voters falsely with fraudulent intent”) Ryan v. 1937) (holding that changing votes after polls had been closed could also be prosecuted under this statute) Walker v. ![]() 1937) (prosecuting election commissioners that conspired to injure voters’ rights by counting certain votes for a different candidate) United States v. 1933) (addressing election inspectors that conspired to tally the ballots incorrectly) United States v. In the 1930s, the Department of Justice (the “DOJ”) prosecuted an ever-broader range of voting rights cases under this statute, with the understanding that injuring the right to vote included both hampering a qualified voter’s ability to cast their vote and failing to count a vote properly cast. That kind of conduct is within the heartland of prior prosecutions under Section 241. But the essential fact is that these types of schemes Trump led would be a violation of Section 241 because of the principal objective and plan to prevent a proper counting of people’s votes, or to discard their votes outright. The voters who were harmed could be just those who cast their ballots in states where Trump and his associates attempted to submit false slates of electors, or all the voters who cast a ballot for Joe Biden, or even every American who voted. Through those courses of conduct, Trump, acting with one or more others, attempted to prevent Congress from certifying the election of the president that the voters had actually selected. That includes both the nonviolent but illegal means Trump and his co-conspirators, such as lawyer John Eastman, urged upon Mike Pence, as well as the last resort when Pence refused: the use of mob violence. Under Section 241, Smith could charge Trump and his co-conspirators with trying to deprive voters in the 2020 presidential election of their rights. ![]()
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