\n\n“In the end, the insurrection was just the back-up plan. That\u2019s one critical finding by the Jan. 6 select committee to keep in mind when digesting its sweeping criminal referrals of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The former president floated the idea<\/a> of marching on the Capitol with a \u201clarge and wild crowd\u201d only after<\/em> his White House advisers and lawyers aggressively tried to quash a quilt of crazy schemes to use federal courts, election administrators, state legislators and ersatz presidential electors to thwart the lawful, peaceful transfer of power. It was a last-ditch resort. And the violence of Jan. 6 would have had its intended effect only if some of those legal machinations had already put enough sand in the gears of the democratic process.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “consider the sitting politicians who coordinated with Trump\u2019s illegal efforts to thwart the democratic process. A facile take would be that election denialists allied with Trump were roundly defeated in the midterms. But this is just not so<\/a>: Incumbent Republicans who denied the truth about the election, in fact, overwhelmingly won last month, and their voters continue to have low levels of trust in the election process. And as misinformation explodes<\/a> afresh on Twitter, it would be reckless to imagine that candidates\u2019 lies about how our democracy and laws are working will somehow abate.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “there is no durable mechanism in place to forestall or punish elected representatives who violate the public trust in this way. Specifically, there is no clear, legislated structure<\/a> to bar insurrectionists from holding office as required by Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “consider those who participated in the fake slates of electors. The process of certification, and wide array of state officials and private citizens involved in it, remains vulnerable to wrongdoing at multiple points. The committee\u2019s referral to DOJ on making false statements rightly homes in upon the fake presidential elector slates. Such prosecutions may well have real deterrence effects. This is important because so far, state prosecutors in six out of seven states<\/a> are failing to investigate or bring charges after false slates were assembled, voted upon and transmitted to the U.S. Archivist.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “the Jan. 6 committee has plausibly broken through to the broader public. It would be a profound shame if the committee\u2019s vital work was misunderstood as a howl for revenge, rather than the more profound call for democratic renewal that it truly is.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n