‘These Are Republic-Ending Tactics’: Constitutional Expert Weighs in on Left’s War against Trump

A constitutional expert is warning that Democrats are using “lawfare” to persecute former President Donald Trump and keep him off the 2024 ballot. Mike Davis, founder of originalist constitutional think tank Article 3 Project, spoke Monday to Family Research Council President Tony Perkins about the threat posed by Democrats violating and selectively weaponizing the rule of law to target Trump. Davis began by explaining, “This is absolutely Democrat lawfare and election interference. It is unprecedented. It is very dangerous to democracy that the Democrats pretend like they are protecting.”

He continued, “They impeached President Trump twice for nonsense. They indicted him four times for non-crimes. They’re trying to bankrupt him in this civil lawsuit in New York, for the non-fraud of a businessman paying back sophisticated Wall Street banks on time, in full, as agreed, with interest.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump, his family, and his business in 2022, alleging that the former president enacted a “15 year ‘scheme to defraud’ the government.” That trial is still ongoing. Trump was criminally indicted earlier this year in New York for alleged business fraud, facing 34 felony charges of falsifying business records. That trial is slated to begin in March.

In June, the U.S. Justice Department indicted Trump for allegedly keeping documents pertaining to national security after leaving the White House. That trial will begin in May. In August, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. for allegedly attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and “defraud the United States.” That case will also go to trial in March. And in Fulton County, Georgia, Trump was indicted for alleged racketeering pertaining to the 2020 election. The former president posted his mugshot to Twitter, garnering nearly two million “likes.”

Addressing the Democrat-led targeting of Trump, Davis said, “This is lawfare. This is election interference.” He explained that the New York indictment stems from Trump settling a nuisance claim, which “somehow … became a campaign finance violation” in the eyes of leftists. The Justice Department indictment originated with Joe Biden.

“Joe Biden is the one who authorized — who waived President Trump’s claim of executive privilege,” Davis pointed out. “That was relayed by Deputy White House counsel Jonathan Xu. And that paved the way to the unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful home raid on President Trump for the office of former president for presidential records that the former president is allowed to have under the Presidential Records Act.”

The indictments relating to the 2020 election are being spearheaded by Justice Department lawyer Jack Smith, whom Davis calls “Biden’s deranged special counsel,” and Fulton County district attorney Fanni Willis, a Democrat. Davis noted that objecting to the results of a presidential election is permitted under the Electoral Count Act of 1887, adding, “If it’s a crime to object to presidential elections, Democrats would be in prison for objecting to Republican wins in 1968, 2000, 2004, and 2016.” He quipped, “I don’t see Al Gore and John Kerry and Hillary Clinton in prison for objecting, but that’s exactly what they’re trying to do to President Trump.”

Davis also explained that, in addition to trying to turn him into a criminal, Democrats are also trying to bar Trump from appearing on the 2024 ballot in key states. In Colorado, a Democratic judge appointed by the state’s Democratic governor is attempting to use a Civil War-era clause in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment to declare Trump an insurrectionist and bar him from appearing on the 2024 ballot. The clause of interest was used in the post-Civil War era (it was ratified in 1870) to block Confederate diehards from running for office and undermining national reconstruction efforts; it disqualifies those who have been convicted of rebellion or insurrection against the U.S. According to Davis, such charges have to be leveled by a U.S. attorney, and the case must be conducted in a federal court.

The non-federal judge currently reviewing the case, Denver District Judge Sarah Wallace, before being appointed to her court, donated to a political action committee to target Republicans who supported Trump on January 6, 2021. Davis emphasized, “Now she’s presiding over a trial, an anti-Trump, January 6 trial to throw President Trump off the ballot.” He further explained, “These Democrat operatives and fake Republicans are trying to throw President Trump off the ballot in Colorado to establish a precedent in this blue state … so they can use this and swing states like Michigan and other states to chase President Trump off so they can just disqualify him.”

Davis stated, “They’re simply trying to take him off the ballot in several states because this lawfare and election interference is backfiring. And President Trump is on a path to beat President Biden like a drum on November 5, 2024. So they just want to take him off the ballot.”

Polling numbers support Davis’s argument. A recent poll conducted by Siena College Research Institute and The New York Times shows Trump winning six key battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — in a 2024 matchup against Biden. According to a polling average from Five-Thirty-Eight, Trump is dominating the GOP presidential primary field with just shy of 57% favorability, as of Monday, making him (thus far) the likely Republican challenger against the incumbent Biden. Judge Wallace will hear closing arguments on Wednesday and has pledged she will offer a ruling by the end of Friday. Davis commented, “I guarantee you she is going to disqualify President Trump from the ballot here in Colorado.”

Addressing whether or not Wallace, as a Democratic operative, has the legal authority to make such a decision, Davis noted, “They put January 6 defendants in the D.C. gulag for months and months and months without charges.” He further clarified, “Today’s Democrats don’t seem to care too much about due process and equal protection of law and following the law. They care about lawfare. They care about power. They care about winning elections, and they care about destroying anyone who gets in their way. And they’re destroying — they’re trying to destroy — President Trump now.”

Davis added, “And what people need to understand is this doesn’t stop with President Trump. They are going after Christians praying outside of abortion clinics. They are going after parents outraged by gender chaos and the resulting rapes in high school bathrooms. … These are republic-ending tactics.”