Trump tells court he had no duty to 'support' the Constitution as president

[hlthe2b]

22. Laurence Tribe on why this argument is sheer bullshit:

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/4198350-does-the-constitution-disqualify-trump-from-running-for-president/

One of these “drive-by claims” is made by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. He makes the strained argument that Trump cannot be disqualified by Section 3 because the president is not an “officer of the United States” because he is elected, not appointed. There is nothing in the language of the 14th Amendment that would support this conclusion.

As Tribe points out: If the precise provision (Article II, section 1) of the Constitution that creates the presidency explicitly refers to that position as an “Office,” then how can the holder of that Office not be an “officer” of the United States under that very same Constitution? Indeed, Article II of the Constitution refers to the “Office” of President nine times.

Mukasey cites an 1888 Supreme Court case, involving the princely sum of $83.28, for the proposition that “unless a person in the service of the government … holds his place by virtue of an appointment … he is not strictly speaking an officer of the United States.” This case, however, did not involve the Constitution. It did involve an elected official. It did involve a statute providing for reimbursement of travel expenses to certain duly appointed naval officers, but not to the plaintiff, a paymaster’s clerk.

What Mukasey overlooks is that Trump has already claimed in court that he is or was an officer of the United States, and has even cited case law where he himself removed a civil action to federal court as an elected officer of the U.S.

In his petition for removal in the New York indictment charging falsification of business records in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress, Trump unsuccessfully sought removal to the federal court. There he alleged he was formerly an “officer of the United States” and cited law permitting federal-officer removal for elected members of Congress.

There is recent precedent for this disqualification strategy. Couy Griffin was an elected commissioner for Otero County, New Mexico. Turns out he joined in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. A group of New Mexico citizens, also supported by CREW, filed an action against Griffin under New Mexico law, seeking his removal from office. The New Mexico district court took evidence, received legal arguments and then concluded that Griffin was disqualified under Section 3.

Of course, the debate assumes that Trump engaged in an insurrection or rebellion on Jan. 6 or aided and abetted those who did. This is a matter that will have to be resolved at a trial. But, as Tribe notes: “I think it’s clear to most people that if Trump doesn’t qualify [for that] nobody would.” He continues, “It’s important for the survival of the republic that someone who has shown himself … to be an insurrectionist against the Constitution not get another chance to try.”

The bottom line: The disqualification argument has legs, and is a serious lawsuit. The president is not an “officer” of the United States? Apple sauce.