Last used in 1992 in response to unrest sparked by the Rodney King verdict, the Insurrection Act has never been invoked to overturn an election or to intervene in peaceful political events of any kind. The legal vehicle the president would likely hope to use is the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that allows the president to federalize the national guard in order to “suppress” an insurrection. Trump reportedly asked Flynn to spell out his proposal during the meeting. military in determining the outcome of an American election.” This shows the dangerous place our country has reached due, in no small part, to extreme and erroneous views of the president’s Article II powers and immunity from criminal law.įollowing Flynn’s public remarks, the idea of a military coup took shape in earnest last Friday, when the president met with Flynn and Flynn’s (and the Trump campaign’s) former lawyer, Sidney Powell, as well as with executive branch staff, to discuss various methods for overturning the results of the election, including the use of martial law. Army officials felt the apparent need to issue a joint statement last week saying “there is no role for the U.S. Short of those steps, the Justice and Defense Departments should be ready to issue internal and public statements that the law clearly prohibits any such actions. Shocking and unprecedented though it would be, Rosen should be ready to go so far as to order federal law enforcement officers to arrest anyone, including if necessary the president, who has conspired to carry out this illegal plan. While we deem the chances that Trump will actually follow through with the attempt to spark a military coup between now and January 20th extremely low, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen should be prepared for such a contingency and play out the legal and enforcement implications in advance. In his increasingly desperate bid to hang on to the White House, President Trump is reportedly contemplating invoking martial law to force the invalidation of the results of the election in four swing states, apparently inspired by remarks of the former and recently-pardoned National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
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