Former DOJ Lawyer Dismantles Trump’s ‘Madcap’ Scheme To Take Over Elections: ‘He Can’t Legally Do It’

A former Department of Defense lawyer blasted the idea that President Donald Trump could legally federalize elections.

Trump has long maintained that the 2020 election was rigged against him, and in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, the president said Democrats cannot win elections legitimately.

“They wanna cheat,” Trump said in his address to a joint session of Congress. “They have cheated. And their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat. And we’re gonna stop it.”

Earlier this month, the president stated, “The Republicans oughta nationalize the voting.”

Although Congress may pass laws regarding voting, elections are constitutionally a state matter.

On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that a group of pro-Trump activists said they are working with the Trump administration to claim that China interfered in the 2020 election. The idea is to use the baseless claim so Trump could issue an executive order declaring a “national emergency” and federalizing elections.

Ryan Goodman, who served as special counsel in the Department of Defense, appeared on Thursday’s OutFront on CNN.

“Can Trump do this?” host Erin Burnett asked.

Goodman replied:

He can’t legally do it, so, I don’t think this survives first contact with the courts. If he passes this kind of executive order, I imagine within hours there will be people who have already developed their litigation strategy to counter it, because it’s being broadcast by him and his team, or at least by this group [in] The Washington Post. And they will make arguments like, “This is not a place that there’s presidential power. This is something that’s run by the state and local election officials.”

“We’re a federalist country,” Burnett responded. “So, it should be run by the states.”

“That’s right,” Goodman said.

He later added, “It’s madcap in a certain sense of how extraordinary the idea is. And that’s why it’s on steroids in a certain sense. And I think people that are involved in this machination might need to worry about their own criminal exposure just to put it out there. There is a criminal statute that says that people should not engage in a conspiracy to deprive people of their rights. That’s 18 U.S.C. § 241. And it specifically says a conspiracy with respect to the right to exercise one’s vote. That’s what it’s about.”

Watch above via CNN.

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