Tag: Washington

Did Trump cross the line of inciting his minions to violence?

On December 18 Trump tweeted “Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”

What has resulted is conservative social media promoting at least four rallies in the capital on Wednesday, starting at 7 a.m. The National Park Service, confirmed it has issued that at least three permits. Those three permits allow a maximum of 15,000 protesters.

Has Trump crossed the line of 18 U.S. Code Chapter 115 – TREASON, SEDITION?  The Supreme Court in the case of Brandenburg vs. Ohio limited the enforcement of this crime to applying it only to speech or conduct that advocates “imminent lawless action.”

If violence erupts on the streets of Washington, D.C., “imminent” gives way to actual lawless action. The three elements of this test are intent to speak, the imminence of lawlessness, and the likelihood of lawlessness.

If violence occurs, Trump may be subject to prosecution for “sedition.”

Trump owns a golf course in Scotland. His trip may be complicated because members of the Scottish Parliament are asking that their first minister for a probe into the financing of Donald Trump’s business interests in Scotland.. Scottish.  First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Tuesday said that President Donald Trump will not be allowed to visit Scotland to play golf in January.

Top Democrats, including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (Calif.) and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (S.C.), have suggested Trump’s actions were potentially criminal or even impeachable.

Gunfire from Trump’s Troops Cause Evacuation of the Capitol  

Hordes of Trump supporters estimated to be in the thousands traveled to Washington on Wednesday to pressure lawmakers and Vice President Pence to overturn the results of the election. Pence noted earlier in the day that he does not have the power to object to electors.

Hundreds of these Trump supporters stormed the barricades of the Capitol and marched toward the building. They overpowered the police on Capitol steps, forced their way into buildings, and security was overrun. The Capital police trying to hold them back.

The U.S. Capitol Police on Wednesday locked down the Capitol building and evacuated multiple congressional buildings amid increasingly violent protests outside.

Buildings being evacuated included the Library of Congress’s Madison Building across from the Capitol as well as the Cannon House office building. This is a massive building. In an alert sent to Hill staffers, police ordered occupants of the Madison building to “move in a safe manner to the exits” and “close doors behind you but do not lock.”

Capitol police just went door by door, running down hallways. Capitol police also told those in the Cannon House building to “take visitors, escape hoods, and Go Kits.”

Vice President Pence was taken from the Senate chamber after protesters entered the Capitol to protest the results of President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

Trump supporters overpowered police on the Capitol steps and forced their way into buildings, overrunning security, rampaging, and pillaging.

The Madison Library of Congress building is being evacuated after Trump supporters breached security and ran past police. The looters and rioters breached the actual Capitol building. After knocking down four layers of the security fence, with the police trying to force them back behind a temporary fence. This is exactly what Donald Trump promised his supporters. This is exactly what he wanted.

Asked how long the lock-down might last, the officer said it will depend on the behavior of the protestors.

“Let me be very clear — the scenes of chaos at the Capitol do not reflect a true America, do not represent who we are. What we are seeing is a small number of extremists dedicated to lawlessness. This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition and it must end now,” Biden said.President-elect Joe Biden condemned the violence in the nation’s capital as “insurrection” and demanded an end to the “chaos.”

“It’s not protest. It’s insurrection,” Biden said.

Trump late in the afternoon issued a statement to the terrorists saying: “I love you. You’re very special. I know how you feel.” He continues to reiterate his false claims that his election defeat was “fraudulent,” which was the basis for the protest in the first place. Trump finally urged his supporters to disperse.

In a court of law, can Trump absolve himself of guilt for the looting and violence by seeking to call back his fanatical supporters that he summoned to the Capitol?

Although the American public watched in shock and dismay as the disturbing series of events unfolded, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.)Katko insists the riots were far worse than reported on television. During an interview with Syracuse.com, Katko shared details about the day of the deadly U.S. Capitol riots.

“I’ve had a lot of classified briefings on it, and it’s deeply troubling,” Katko told Syracuse.com. “I was left with a profound sense that it was much worse than people realized.”

Katko’s latest remarks come just weeks after he spoke out against Trump’s rhetoric and antics. He noted the president’s misinformation campaigns on social media and his speech during the “Save America” rally that provoked the Capitol siege as he stressed the importance of holding the president accountable for his actions, according to Newsweek.

He insisted that the former president “deliberately promoted baseless theories that created a combustible environment of misinformation and division.”

Katko added, “To allow the president of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy and to our security.”

While the former president has departed from Washington, D.C., he still has a number of legal investigations to contend with in the coming months.

 

En Route to Trumpistan – Can the U.S. Avoid Becoming an Authoritarian State?

America resisted the efforts of the German American Bund in the 1930s to mobilize and win World War II. But now in 2020, we are on our way to an authoritarian state.

Trump began misusing federal forces to separate children from their families seeking asylum in the USA. Asylum seekers and families are protected by and international federal law which forbids the government to simply send them back. Federal courts stopped this administration from holding families for months without justifying the decision to keep them in detention.

A federal judge said he believed that if the allegations against the administration were true, they might very well be unconstitutional. Some courts have found this is implicitly part of the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of “liberty” without due process of law. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA Ms. L.; et al., Petitioners-Plaintiffs, v. U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”); et al., Respondents-Defendants. Case No.: 18cv0428 DMS (MDD) violates their due process rights,

Millions of people were outraged but no articles of impeachment arose from this abuse of power.

On June 1,  in Washington, Trump deployed federal law enforcement personnel using riot control tactics and munitions against nonviolent protesters to clear a path for President Donald Trump to walk from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square for a brief photo op. Within days, anonymous federal forces began to appear on D.C. streets.

In July, federal forces from the Department of Homeland Security were deployed in Portland, Oregon Kansas City and Seattle using unmarked cars and officers in camouflage wearing no badges, and with the power to abduct people from the streets.  President Trump has threatened future deployments to other cities “run by liberal Democrats,” including Chicago, Oakland, and New York.  The Mayor of Portland was gassed.

These deployments generated national outcry and lawsuits.

In June 2020, the Trump administration began deploying federal law enforcement forces to some cities in the United States, in response to rioting and monument removals amid the George Floyd protests. Federal law enforcement elements have been deployed under Operation Legend, Operation Diligent Valor, and the Protecting American Communities Task Force (PACT). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has cited an executive order regarding “monuments, memorials, and statues” as allowing federal officers to be deployed without the permission of individual U.S. states. The latest deployment he’s announced is to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

We know he’s worried about the coming election and the closer it gets, the more erratic and despotic his behavior! Trump says he’ll send law enforcement officials to monitor voting in November.

Trump repeatedly claims voter fraud will undermine November’s election results even as fellow Republicans acknowledge mail-in ballots are safe.  In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, e would send law enforcement officials to polling locations to guard against voter fraud in November’s election. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, US attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody and attorney generals (sic),” Trump said during an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity. “Not helpful” is the way the postmaster general on Monday described Trump’s attacks on mail-in ballots.

Federal law prohibits any conduct that intimidates voters. Several states expressly forbid law enforcement presence at the polls. Department of Defense and National Guard personnel must also refrain from conducting “operations” at polling places. Furthermore, the President does not have the authority to send local sheriffs anywhere, and sending armed federal law enforcement to the polls could result in violations of US criminal code.

We’re experiencing a creeping martial law one step at a time. Martial law isn’t declared like in the movies – one which is all too easy to normalize and accept because it proceeds in slow steps.

President Trump operates from petulance. Upset when he heard that  Goodyear factory workers were prohibited from wearing  MAGA HATS at work,  tweeted August 19th: “Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES.

The following day a Trump campaign event featuring  “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!” featured tires from Michelin (French), Bridgestone (Japanese), and Continental (German), but not Goodyear (American).

Do Americans understand that Trump is undoing our constitutional right to a free election?  A right millions of Americans have died protecting. Concerns are voiced by politicians and civil liberties groups that these deployments are unconstitutional and a red flag of authoritarian measures or the beginning of martial law. Trump is instituting martial law now in the time-honored way that authoritarian-fascists do.  We need to remember “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.”