It would be rather disingenuous at this time to suggest that Donald Trump’s political future looks pleasant – or even possible -at this point, and the news just keeps getting worse for the former President.
On Monday, the January 6th select committee voted unanimously to refer Trump to the Department of Justice on 4 criminal charges, including one that suggest that the former President could be guilty of “inciting” the mob on that fateful day – a charge that Trump has already been acquitted of by the Senate during his second impeachment trial.
But if the committee has their way, this renewed charge could actually bar the former President from holding office ever again.
A special House committee’s vote to refer former President Donald Trump for potential criminal charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol brings fresh attention to a Constitutional ban on insurrectionists holding office.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment states that no one can “hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State” if they took an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”
Ratified in 1868, the language was drafted to address former Confederate officeholders. But the text doesn’t spell out exactly how to disqualify someone from running or holding office again.
Some lawmakers were already expressing their certainty of Trump’s guilt.
The House Jan. 6 committee urged the Justice Department on Monday to consider charging Trump with inciting or aiding an insurrection. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, who announced the insurrection referral, described it as “a grave federal offense anchored in the Constitution itself” and noted that it was “automatic grounds” for disqualifying someone from holding state or federal office.
Trump and his inner circle have long believed that the committee’s true intent was to make it impossible for Donald Trump to be reelected in 2024, and this latest maneuver appears to corroborate those fears.
