U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday in response to a recent column in The Washington Post appearing to encourage an insurrection against a potential Donald Trump presidency.
On November 30, contributing editor Robert Kagan published a piece in the outlet entitled, “A Trump dictatorship increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending.”
In his piece, Kagan argued the “stark reality” is that there’s a “clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day” in regards to former President Donald Trump securing the GOP nomination and going on to win the presidency in 2024.
Kagan’s piece concluded that a second Trump presidency would justify “States with Democratic governors and statehouses” refusing to “recognize the authority of a tyrannical federal government.”
Kagan’s piece reads as follows:
Resistance [to President Trump and the United States government] could come from the governors of predominantly Democratic states such as California and New York through a form of nullification. States with Democratic governors and statehouses could refuse to recognize the authority of a tyrannical federal government. That is always an option in our federal system.
In his letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and State Department, Vance asked if Kagan’s piece will be characterized as an invitation to “insurrection,” a manifestation of criminal “conspiracy,” or an attempt to bring about civil war, considering the DOJ’s “broad interpretations of the law in order to prosecute President Trump.”
“As you know, prosecutors in the Department of Justice have embraced several stunningly broad interpretations of federal law in their bid to ensnare President Trump in criminal wrongdoing,” Vance wrote. “For example, prosecutors have relied on a broad reading of 18 U.S.C. § 241 to argue that President Trump has conspired to “threaten” or “intimidate” one or more persons in their free exercise of the “right to vote, and to have one’s vote counted.” By that standard, I would like to know whether a supporter of President Trump might be “intimidate[d]” into forgoing the right to vote after learning that Robert Kagan has encouraged large blue states to rebel against the United States if Trump is elected.”
Vance added, “If so, I wonder further whether the editors of The Washington Post, having put Kagan’s call to arms in print, might have conspired to suppress the vote.”
The Ohio senator then raised questions about Kagan’s wife, Victoria Nuland, who is a senior administration official charged with reviewing the nation’s most sensitive national security information and intelligence programs.
“I am curious to know whether, in the view of the State Department, Victoria Nuland’s close relationship with her husband might compromise her judgment about the best interests of the United States,” Vance added.
Vance concluded his letter by requesting answers to the following four questions by January 6, 2024:
- Will the Department of Justice open an investigation into Robert Kagan for potential violations of 18 U.S.C. § 241, 18 U.S.C. § 2383, or any other federal criminal statute? If not, what factors counsel against such an investigation? Why were those factors inapplicable in President Trump’s case?
- Does the Department of Justice agree with Robert Kagan that, should they perceive federal authority to be tyrannical, the states of California and New York would be free to flout the federal government?
- How does the Department of Justice distinguish between heated political rhetoric and evidence of a conspiracy to violate rights or rebel against the United States? In the view of the Department of Justice, could a demand for “nullification” or secession “intimidate” a voter into changing his behavior at the ballot box?
- Will the State Department review Victoria Nuland’s security clearance in light of her husband’s call for rebellion against the United States? If not, why not?”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
and Conservative States should bow down to Dictator Biden?
Bullsh**!