President Donald Trump is facing possible charges by the Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia after his attempts to overthrow the 2020 election by pressuring Georgia officials to change the election count.
Speaking to MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan, Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe explained that some of the possible charges for Trump are going to be difficult for him "to wiggle out of."
"Well, you would have to put them in different buckets," Tribe began. "The financial cases are very strong, but they won't hold him accountable for his abuses as president. The ones that are really serious in that respect, are with the Fulton County prosecution, which is a prosecution for basically trying to steal the Georgia election, and the prosecutions that might occur under federal law. There are two key provisions of title 18 of U.S. code. One which you referenced earlier, U.S. codes 2384, that is conspiracy to commit sedition, a fancy way of talking about trying to prevent the government from functioning."
Tribe explained that if convicted, Trump could go to prison for as much as 20 years for the crime.
"The more serious one, interestingly, is punishable by only 10 years, but permanent disqualification from ever holding any state or federal office," Tribe continued. "That's Title 18, U.S. code 2383. That's the one where it seems to point to the president's guilt because that applies to anyone who gives aid or comfort to insurrection or rebellion. Now the facts as they are emerging, and I would count on an inquiry supervised ultimately by Merrick Garland as attorney general to see if the evidence really points there. Bit it looks like the evidence supports a conclusion that the president and people immediately around him directly gave aid and comfort to an insurrection against the United States to prevent the government from functioning and to prevent the installation of a new president through the counting of the electoral votes Jan. 6. Those are incredibly serious, far more serious than the financial crimes which really have nothing to do with the president's office."
Trump's team has tried to muddy the waters, Hasan explained. In recent weeks, Trump has claimed that his comments were misreported by the Washington Post, but the reality is that it's on tape and it's clear. The conversation that was recorded with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is even more damning.
"It's very hard to understand that conversation any other way when he says 'you and your lawyer' are going to be in basically criminal trouble if you don't somehow, 'find' one more vote than the number by which I lost to Biden, according to your count," Tribe explained. "So, finding one extra vote. That's just code for 'give me a victory that I didn't win, or else you're in trouble.' That's really strong-arming extortion, a violation of the election laws. We heard it happen in real-time and we heard it with our own ears in. So, it's really hard to wiggle out of that."
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