[ The most important of all indictments against the former
president: openly and long-time racist businessman and politician
being brought up on federal charges by a very powerful civil rights
enforcement tool created during the Reconstruction years.]
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USING THE KLU KLUX KLAN ACTS TO INDICT TRUMP IS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT
ASPECT OF THIS CASE  
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Charles Ellison
August 2, 2023
The B|E Note
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_ The most important of all indictments against the former president:
openly and long-time racist businessman and politician being brought
up on federal charges by a very powerful civil rights enforcement tool
created during the Reconstruction years. _

Photo via Creative Commons // The Progressive Magazine,

 

There will, naturally, over the next set of hours to days to weeks be
a mountain of armchair and professional commentary on what are the
most compelling features of the most recent 45-PAGE INDICTMENT
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down by a federal District Court grand jury against Trump. We’ll
also get exposed to quite a bit of political handicapping into 2024,
an eye-squinting attempt - looking into the future - at understanding
how these legal troubles will influence the shape and contours of next
year’s presidential election. The broader public will also struggle
to simply keep up with it all: the daily and overwhelming deluge of
breaking news about Trump’s legal woes and Trump’s poll standing
including his chances at winning the Republican primary.

All of the above is important. But, public discourse typically has a
way of veering us off course from deeper understandings of a subject,
as well as insights into even more critical items. This is, yes, a
rather stunning and, to observers of history, frightening development.
One might argue that it is the American justice system’s most
extreme test ever. How does it, truly, hold a former president and
also _losing_ presidential candidate accountable for what we’ve
all seen are clearly destructive actions towards the republic? This is
the first time ever and if pulled off _correctly_ it will set a new
(and needed) standard.

But, already, the larger or “mainstream” public conversation on
this is missing key parts that some of us believe are a bit more
essential. Several thoughts …

Using The Klan Acts

Kudos to the Washington Post for a FULL FEATURE STORY
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how special counsel Jack Smith used what was formerly and rather
popularly known as the "_Klu Klux Klan Acts_” to prosecute Trump in
this particular round of indictment. You should read it today if you
read anything else. This is what makes it the most important and truly
ironic of all indictments against the former president: an openly and
long-time racist businessman and politician being brought up on
federal charges by a very powerful civil rights enforcement tool
created during the Reconstruction years (which they never really teach
properly in high school). As the Post reports, Smith is using …

_… SECTION 241 OF TITLE 18 OF THE U.S. CODE
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originally adopted as part of the Enforcement Act of 1870. It was the
first in a series of measures known as the Ku Klux Klan Acts designed
to protect rights guaranteed by the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments,
collectively called the Reconstruction Amendments. Section 241 makes
it a crime to ‘conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate
any person’ exercising a right protected by the Constitution or
federal law._

In this case, the attempted overturning of an election through use of
conspiracy, subversion, and the armed force which all culminated into
the Jan. 6th _terrorist attack_ on the U.S. Capitol is clearly a
violation of our collective civil and voting rights - or, the civil
and voting rights of those who lawfully voted against the standing
president (Trump) at that time. This activity is a standard democratic
activity supported by the Constitution. Trump, along with
co-conspirators and the Republican Party, attempted to overturn those
results.

Revisiting Reconstruction

Smith’s decision to use the Klu Klux Klan Acts in his
full-steam-ahead federal prosecution of Trump, it’s now that time
for a full public revisitation of what happened during Reconstruction.
The American memory on that is foggy on that, particularly these days,
so we could all use the history lesson. This indictment comes at a
very serious inflection point where Black history curriculum is being
systematically and rapidly removed from schools. Understanding
Reconstruction - and, of course, the years of slavery, the beginning
of modern capitalism and the Civil War - offers us all the critical
and necessary insights on what just happened with this indictment.
Maybe START HERE
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summary and then dig deeper with these ESSENTIAL TEXTS
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many have been waiting for a long-time for someone or some legal
authority to lean on the use of the Klan Acts in this situation, just
as there has been a gradual movement to remove Trump from the ballot
under Section 3 in the 14th Amendment because he engaged in
“insurrection.”

Disqualification From The Next Election

Which leads us to that other conversation pundits, politicians,
policymakers and the general public have been mightily dismissive
about since the Jan. 6th insurrection took place two-years ago: Use of
the Disqualification Clause. If Smith is using Reconstruction Era
amendments to prosecute Trump then policymakers and election officials
in multiple states should have already, by now, looked into the
removal of Trump from the ballot pursuant to Section 14.3 of the
Constitution. Advocacy organization FREE SPEECH FOR PEOPLE
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pitching this for a while now, arguing that

_… Trump’s incitement of the January 6th insurrection makes him
ineligible for any future run for office._

Momentum has been growing in that direction, but not fast enough
because too many people either believe a clause this simply stated
doesn’t exist or conventional thinking around the Constitution
prevents literal interpretation. Yet, Section 3 in the 14th Amendment
is rather clear about Trump’s ineligibility …

_No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or
elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or
military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having
previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of
the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an
executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the
Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection
or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies
thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House,
remove such disability._

The hope here is that Smith’s use of Reconstruction Era law can
trigger or fuel election officials - on the state and local level - to
consider the removal of Trump from their ballots. Let’s see if they
move on that. Voters should start asking them about that, too.

The Myth of Meritocracy

Let’s talk more about this: If we’re to just let losing candidates
weave myths and lies in their favor at the end of every election so
they can always reverse legitimate election results, how is _that_ a
democracy? That’s called poor losers. And, how exactly is that an
example of a society operating on the winner-loser “meritocracy”
system the American affluent class loves to regularly push? A related
conversation is on “fairness,” another concept Americans regularly
and lovingly push as though we conceived it. The judicial system
itself is also on trial as a skeptical and wary public (already soured
on the Supreme Court) watches the preferential treatment wealthy
political elites such as Trump receive when an indictment is dropped.
There’s no jail time. He gets bond. There’s no mugshot. He appears
to receive softened treatment compared to, let’s say, Black man who
would have engaged in either similar or much lesser crimes. This is
one factor driving Fulton County, Georgia sheriff Patrick
Labat’s THINKING ON THE MATTER 
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he awaits another possible 2020 election-related indictment from
Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis …

_“Unless someone tells me differently,” the sheriff, Patrick
Labat, said on Tuesday, his office would follow “normal practices,
and so it doesn’t matter your status. We’ll have mug shots ready
for you.”_

Watch the Judges

Lastly, we haven’t really been watching the federal judges presiding
over or ruling on this labryinth of Trump cases. News outlets fail to
report on that regularly. For example: Few Americans realize that
federal Florida District Court judge AILEEN CANNON, who’s
overseeing Trump’s very troubling SENSITIVE DOCUMENTS CASE
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which appears to involve levels of cover-up and espionage - is
actually a Trump judicial appointee. There is a general dearth of
public awareness and education around how federal judges become
judges, with very few Americans understanding how that system
operates. Only 47 percent of Americans (less than half) CAN NAME
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three branches of the federal government, meaning most don’t know
the judiciary or how it functions or the federal judge nomination
process which starts with presidents and then snakes its way through
the Senate for confirmation.

Knowing the judges and which president appointed them is useful in
understanding the inevitable political dynamics that will show up in
that courtroom. It is completely misleading to say courts are
non-political; judges started off with political backgrounds or they
wouldn’t have ended up on a federal bench had not a particular
partisan president didn’t feel comfortable enough nominating them.
We saw a quick flash of partisan politics perhaps operating last week
in the LAST-MINUTE COLLAPSE
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Hunter Biden’s plea deal as a Trump-appointed judge overseeing that
case, Maryellen Noreika, put it on hold. It’s important to note that
the federal District Court judge now overseeing Trump’s insurrection
case, TANYA CHUTKAN
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is not only a President Obama appointee, but is also a Black woman.
And she’s also been very rigid and candid, refreshingly so, in her
views on Jan. 6th insurrectionists. This clearly appears not to work
in Trump’s favor. But, then again, he and his co-conspirators should
have never engaged in insurrection in the first place if they didn’t
want to end up in this position.

_[Formerly a political strategist who had worked for mayors, state
legislators, and members of Congress, CHARLES ELLISON’s radio career
started on SiriusXM’s “POTUS Channel” as host of the show,
“Black Policy.” Years later, that experience morphed into
“Reality Check,” a daily, public-affairs broadcast that highlights
political and policy issues vital to Black communities in Philadelphia
and elsewhere, on WURD, Pennsylvania’s only Black-owned talk-radio
station._

_Ellison also runs ecoWURD, the first Black-owned media outlet
dedicated to coverage of environmental and climate issues. In
addition, he’s lead adviser to the Council of State Governments
(East) Council on Communities of Color. He's also principal of B|E
Strategy [[link removed]], and publisher of
the BEnote.com [[link removed]].]_

* Trump Indictment
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* Donald Trump
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* criminal indictment of a U.S. president
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* KKK
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* Ku Klux Klan
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* voter suppression
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* Voter Intimidation
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* Jan. 06
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* Jan. 06 Capitol Insurrection
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* Overturn Election
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* Ku Klux Klan Acts
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* Reconstruction
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* Black History
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* conspiracy
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* Insurrection
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