Donald Trump Has Violated No Less Than Five Federal Laws. It's Time to Charge Him.

     Donald Trump is a lifelong crook, from Trump University to the Trump Foundation and now the Trump Organization. The idea that this behavior would stop when he was given the power of the presidency is absurd. Donald Trump, in his attempts to overthrow the government between November 2020 and January 2021, is guilty of no less than five federal crimes.

     Donald Trump's executive order demanding the military seize voting machines is a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prevents the military from enforcing domestic policies unless expressly authorized by Congress; in this case, an obvious attempt occurred without authorization. Violations of this law are a misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in a federal prison.

     In terms of his actions on January 6th, Donald Trump clearly violated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. After January 6th, the Department of Justice used a novel legal strategy to get prison sentences for nonviolent rioters, mostly those that made it into the Senate chamber, which is the easiest case to prove. This 2002 law bans individuals from "corruptly obstructing" a proceeding in Congress, and it was enacted in response to the Enron scandal. The word "corrupt" is vague, which defendants from the insurrection have tried to use as a defense to argue the law doesn't apply to them. However, at least a dozen cases before virtually every judge overseeing these proceedings have resulted in this argument being ignored; the charges have stuck, establishing an important legal precedent. Donald Trump, by inciting the mob, corruptly obstructed an official proceeding, and he needs to be charged with this felony that could put him in prison for 20 years.

     After the insurrection, Donald Trump tore up the related documents, which were taped back together by staffers. He allegedly also burned documents. While this violates the Presidential Records Act, there is no penalty inscribed into law for these violations. One law this does violate is tampering with evidence. His calls to violence if he is criminally indicted also qualify as tampering with witnesses under federal law. These are both the same obstruction of justice charge, and they could each result in felony penalties of up to 20 years in prison.

     This brings up another crime: this committing multiple crimes in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election is a clear case of seditious conspiracy, the same charge that the Oath Keepers leader is facing and also a 20-year felony. He without question directed Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and state lawmakers to commit conspiracy and fraud with their slates of fraudulent electors with the goal of stopping the peaceful transfer of power. How do we know? He literally said so himself.

     Donald Trump himself violated no less than five federal laws that could put him in prison for up to two to 82 years. I understand the DOJ being nervous about being "political," but this was an attempt to overthrow the U.S. government that failed because a lifelong failure tried it. If no prosecutions are made, it will happen again. President Biden needs to sign an executive order banning White House contact with the DOJ related to specific cases to make clear that this is merely about enforcing the law. After that, it's time for Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan to be indicted for contempt and the dozens of fake electors, Rudy Giuliani, and Mark Meadows to be indicted for conspiracy and forgery. Finally, Donald Trump needs to be indicted on the charges I have laid out above.