John, we’re sure you’ve seen plenty of takes on Donald Trump’s federal indictment yesterday, but here’s an important one you probably haven’t seen:

This is great news for our efforts to enforce Trump’s disqualification from office under the 14th Amendment.

It’s incredibly important that Trump be held both criminally and constitutionally accountable for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and exploit the January 6th insurrection. The 14th Amendment disqualifies from office anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection. Donald Trump is disqualified under this provision, and although a criminal conviction is not necessary to bar an official from office under this provision, yesterday’s damning indictment will only serve to strengthen our case.

There will be much more to come soon on our legal efforts, but we wanted to give you this encouraging news—and ask you to consider sharing this with your friends and family.

Thank you,

Team CREW

PS: The following is the email we sent on July 18th, when we released a 90 page report detailing the case to disqualify Trump from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Read on for more information about the Disqualification Clause.

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John,

Today, CREW is releasing a detailed and comprehensive new report with a very simple message:

Donald Trump is disqualified from office.

I’m going to break this down further, but first, I wanted to ask you to make a donation to CREW. We’re going to fight to stop Donald Trump from ever serving in office again, as mandated by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, using the facts that we lay out in this report, and we can’t do it without grassroots support.

John, let’s break this down:

What did Trump do?

On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump took the oath of office, swearing to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Almost four years to the day after taking that oath, on January 6, 2021, Trump incited a violent insurrection that nearly shattered our democracy.

The attack on the Capitol was not a spontaneous event. It was the culmination of a multi-part scheme by Trump and his allies to use lies, intimidation, coercion and ultimately violence to keep Trump in office.

Why does that mean Trump is disqualified from office?

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection from holding state or federal office. It was put in place after the Civil War to ensure that those who rose up against the United States government would not then be put in charge of it. Many former Confederate officials did not even try to hold office because of it, and courts and legislatures disqualified others who did.

By leading these unprecedented efforts to subvert the Constitution and American democracy, Trump disqualified himself under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment from holding any federal or state office, including the presidency.

How do you prove Trump incited the insurrection?

Our new report shows the overwhelming evidence that Trump not only engaged in the January 6th insurrection, but was its central cause.

Here are just a few snippets backing up our argument:

• Trump spread knowingly false claims of a “stolen” and “rigged” election — even after he exhausted legal challenges, his advisors told him he had lost, the states certified his loss, and there was no lawful basis to contest the election results.
• Trump’s lie that the election was stolen propelled the “Stop the Steal” movement, which tried to exert pressure on Vice President Mike Pence and Congress to unlawfully refuse to certify the presidential election results on January 6th.
• Trump summoned a violent mob of tens of thousands of his supporters — including now-convicted seditionists and members of extremist groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys — to travel to Washington, D.C. for a “wild” protest on January 6th.
• Trump incited the mob to “fight like hell” to overturn the election results by marching to the Capitol to “stop the steal,” knowing that many were armed, adorned in tactical gear, and prepared for violence. Trump failed to act for nearly three hours as his mob ransacked the United States Capitol, brutally assaulted police officers, and called for the murder of elected officials.

John, the framers of Section 3 sought to protect American democracy from someone exactly like Trump when they barred constitutional oath-breakers from office.

How do we know that it can actually work?

Because CREW has done it before.

Last year a court in New Mexico, in a case brought by New Mexico residents represented by CREW, disqualified a county commissioner who played a role in the January 6th insurrection, including organizing and encouraging the violent mob.

Couy Griffin, a former New Mexico county commissioner who was a grassroots mobilizer for a “battle” to stop the certification process and a member of Trump’s mob on January 6th, was disqualified as a result of this lawsuit to enforce his constitutional disqualification.

Trump’s conduct passes the bar for constitutional disqualification. Both chambers of Congress have found Trump responsible for inciting the insurrection by bipartisan votes, as have nine federal judges, and the facts set out in CREW’s new report strongly support those findings.

Just like we removed Couy Griffin from office, we plan to take action to disqualify Donald Trump from holding office too, as the Constitution requires. But taking on such a formidable task isn’t easy, so we’re asking for your support.

Thanks for your support,

Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW