This Is A Crime

 The Post has obtained a recording of Trump trying to solicit a crime from the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger. The article is peppered by a few quotes from legal experts who say that it's unclear whether or not this qualifies as a crime. It certainly seems to me - completely untrained in the law - that doctoring electoral results is a crime. Asking someone to doctor electoral results - which is what Trump explicitly did on the phone call - is solicitating someone to commit that crime.

I doubt this crime comes with stiff sentences, but it should be the first focus of prosecutors, not only for Trump, but everyone who is participating in this ongoing effort to undermine the election of 2020. Back in 2017 when Neil Gorsuch was being confirmed to a seat that rightly belonged to Merrick Garland, Democrats were told elections have consequences. In 2020, during impeachment, Democrats were told that elections were the proper way to hold Trump accountable. Now that the election has been held and Trump has been repudiated, the GOP wants to erase the election.

This is as disturbing as pretty much anything Trump has done, aside from family separation. It certainly looks like the GOP is largely in lockstep with Trump in the active commission of this crime against American democracy. 

To be clear, I don't think Trump has much of any chance of overturning his loss. This isn't about that. It's about clear consequences for attacking the very idea of Democratic governance. Do we really think that if the GOP had control of the House, that this flagrant attack on the rule of law might not succeed? This is about establishing clear and criminal consequences for trying to undermine an election. This is a crime against everything that America has purported to stand for since 1776. 

Political squeamishness should not stand in the way of bringing these fuckers before the law.