August 5, 2023
Letters to the Editor
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The New York Times
Re: “The Charges Notably Absent in the Case” (Front page story by Alan Feuer, August 4, 2023)
To the Editor:
The charge of aiding or assisting “insurrection,” if sustained against former President Donald Trump, would disqualify him from the 2024 presidential race under section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The charge was probably omitted from Mr. Trump’s August
1, 2023, federal grand jury indictment not from fear of a free speech defense. It had been rejected in a companion civil rights case,
Thompson v. Trump (February 18, 2022) by U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta. Judge Mehta found that Mr. Trump’s incendiary Stop the Steal lies to an armed mob on January 6 succeeded in inciting an attack on the Capitol to prevent Vice President
Mike Pence from counting state-certified electoral votes to frustrate compliance with the Twelfth Amendment and Electoral Count Act.
Insurrection was more likely omitted because Democrats believe Trump would be a weak and convulsive Republican candidate against President Joe Biden and do not want him disqualified; or because it was thought disqualification would compound the nation’s partisan
divisions. Special Counsel Jack Smith was probably not responsible for the omission.
Sincerely,
Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan and author of
Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy
300 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.; Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20001
Phone: 202-465-8728; 703-963-4968 (M)
Email: bruce@feinpoints.com
www.lawofficesofbrucefein.com
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