“‘national hero’ for finding evidence of fraud” and again claimed there were problems with the signature-matching system used by the state.[1] This call was made as the state of Georgia conducted an audit of ballots in Cobb County. President Trump’s exchanges with state officials also occurred in the context of reported White House pressure on the U.S. for the Northern District of Georgia Byung J. Pak, who abruptly resigned on January 5, 2020.[2] Pak was reported to have been forced to resign because he was not investigating the President’s claims of widespread voter fraud in Georgia strongly enough.[3]
In sum, the President pressured the Secretary to conclude that he had won Georgia without regard to whether that was factually so. This conversation echoes other reported instances in which the President pressured officials and legislators in Georgia and other states,[4] and in the federal government, to alter the election outcome in his favor. Most recently, he urged the Vice-President of the United States to usurp an authority not granted to him by the Constitution to reject the votes of a state’s duly appointed electors, and to cause President Trump to be wrongfully appointed as President; and when Mr. Pence refused to do so, he incited the armed mob of his followers to go to the Capitol to disrupt the proceedings.
President Trump’s incitement of mob violence against the Capitol is clearly part of a broader pattern of encouraging lawless behavior and official action where it serves to aggrandize his own power. Especially in light of the accelerating pace of these events as the end of President Trump’s term comes to a close, the risk that that pattern will continue and repeat itself even in the final days of his administration is great.
- B. The Need to Establish Precedent That Such Conduct by a President Is Unconstitutional and Contrary to Our Democratic Values
The House must impeach President Trump to make clear for all future officeholders that our Constitution rejects President Trump’s behavior. Since President Washington willingly relinquished his office at the end of his second term in 1797, this country has seen an unbroken chain of peaceful transitions. Some have argued that given the little remaining time left in President Trump’s term, there is no need to impeach him now. This ignores the precedent this country would set if we refuse to impeach and the remedy of disqualification that the Senate may impose. Even wrongly assuming that President Trump poses no ongoing threat, impeachment sends the strongest
- ↑ Richard Fausset & Katie Benner, Georgia Officials Reveal Third Trump Call Seeking to Influence Election Results, N. Y. Times (Jan. 9, 2021).
- ↑ Kelly Mena, Wall Street Journal: White House pressured Georgia federal prosecutor to resign, CNN (Jan. 9, 2021).
- ↑ Aruna Viswanatha et al., White House Forced Georgia U.S. Attorney to Resign, Wall Street Journal (Jan. 9, 2021).
- ↑ See e.g., Carol D. Leonnig & Tom Hamburger, Michigan attorney general ponders criminal probes of state and local officials who bend to Trump’s will on overturning election results, Wash. Post (Nov. 21, 2020); Alison Durkee, Pennsylvania GOP lawmakers make clear they won’t overturn the election as Trump wants, Forbes (Dec. 3, 2020).
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