Trump May Have Committed Sedition By Unleashing Far-Right Activists

President Urged Violence Against His Own Country

Columbus coronavirus protests at the Ohio Statehouse (M)

Republicans had the chance to remove President Donald Trump from office a few months ago through impeachment. The case stalled in the Senate, with Democrats failing to get a two-thirds majority. But it seems that Trump could face future impeachment charges if he wins reelection in November and the Democrats win control of both houses of Congress.

Trump could face impeachment for a host of charges, fraud, perjury, criminal negligence for refusing to protect America against the ravages of the coronavirus, etc. However, I think he should face charges for sedition.

According to title 18 of the U.S. Code, sedition is defined as “to conspire to overthrow or destroy by force the government of the United States or to level war against them, to oppose by force the authority of the United States government; to prevent, hinder, or delay by force the execution of any law of the United States; or to take, seize, or possess by force any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”

Stoking Violence Against the Government

That’s pretty much what Trump did when he urged a band of conspiracy theorists, gun nuts and white supremacists to “liberate” states controlled by Democratic governors last week. Look at the wording, “liberate” means to free. This implies these states were occupied, but they were being controlled by democratically-elected governors. The illegality seems clear.

“The potential for real-world violence by these groups came into focus earlier this week, when an Arkansas boogaloo enthusiast named Aaron Swenson live-streamed himself on Facebook driving around Texarkana, Texas, allegedly looking for a police officer to shoot and kill,” — Christopher Mathias, Huffington Post

I’ve written about this issue before but after doing further research, I realized Trump’s tweet was even more dangerous than I first realized. Some of the actors he called upon were ready to unleash violence on the U.S. government.

Trump will likely claim he didn’t intend to incite violence or was being “sarcastic,” but far-right actors took his words seriously. According to an April 24 Huffington Post article by Christopher Mathias, many of the neo-fascists considered Trump’s actions to be the green light for an attack against the U.S. government.

“A report published Thursday by the watchdog group the Tech Transparency Project found 125 Facebook groups devoted to the idea of the ‘boogaloo,’ a far-right term used to describe what they believe is an inevitable civil war in the U.S. Members discuss weapons, combat medicine, and how to develop explosives, the report says. One group even shared a document detailing how to disrupt U.S. government supply lines and discussing the possible need to assassinate government officials,” said Mathias.

He also claimed many of the activists came very close to violent action.

“The potential for real-world violence by these groups came into focus earlier this week, when an Arkansas boogaloo enthusiast named Aaron Swenson live-streamed himself on Facebook driving around Texarkana, Texas, allegedly looking for a police officer to shoot and kill,” said Mathias.

Trump Works Against America

This is shocking but not surprising. It’s not the first time Trump has taken actions that have negatively affected the United States and its allies. According to The Washington Post, in 2017, he shared classified information with the Russians about an Israeli mole in the terrorist group ISIS, likely compromising the operation. The mole later went radio silent.

Trump’s repeated denials about the dangers of the coronavirus and his decision to send Personal Protective Equipment out of the country when we had a burgeoning pandemic also cost American lives.

And Americans are angry about this. Last week, activists dumped replica body bags at a Trump hotel in New York City. In a CNN interview, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said, “In New York City this is playing out in so many families and I got to tell you Donald Trump has blood on his hands and he has my mom’s blood on his hands.”

For the last four years, I’ve been saying the president of the United States is an enemy of the United States. If inciting violent activists against your own country isn’t an impeachable act, I don’t know what is.