Trump Removal Case Lands On Supreme Court Docket Through Revote 2017 Efforts
In June of this year, Bloomberg reported that Russia’s cyberattack against the United States election was “far more widespread than has been publicly revealed” and included incursions into voter databases of as many as 35 states. That news is just one piece of evidence of many that a grassroots group known as Revote 2017 is using in building their case to nullify Elections 2016 and remove President Trump from office.
Their case has recently been successful in obtaining a new docket number from the Supreme Court, and Revote 2017 is now moving forward legally in their efforts to nullify Elections 2016 and remove the Trump Administration from the White House.
It’s a battle with the Supreme Court that will certainly be an uphill battle for the grassroots organization, but it’s one they are willing to fight. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court already denied their petition without comment on March 17, according to the organization’s About page online. Their prior case had gone to the Supreme Court without legal representation.
But since then, Revote 2017 has “assembled a brilliant legal team” that is led by attorney Mark Small who they say is admitted to practice with the Supreme Court. A new case has been developed since March, and on May 26, Mark Small filed a new petition for a Writ of Mandamus with the Supreme Court. The petition now has a docket number with the Supreme Court and Revote 2017 is known as Docket # 16-1464.
The Supreme Court docket entries reveal that the Writ was filed on May 26, with a response required by the opposing party by July 7, 2017. The opposing party in this case is the Donald Trump Administration. On June 22, 2017, the respondent filed a waiver of right to respond.
The matter was then distributed for conference by the Supreme Court on June 28. The conference for Revote 2017 is now scheduled for September 25, 2017.
In the meantime, Revote 2017 is collecting evidence, performing in marches, and educating the public on this social and now legal movement. The last event held by Revote 2017 was in the Rockport parade where they marched on July 4.
A look on the website of Revote 2017 illustrates that the Russian interference with Elections 2016 is the predominating grounds for their case with the Supreme Court. It was almost one year ago today, on July 27, 2017, when Donald Trump called on Russia in a campaign presser. He said the following.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
In the same meeting, he was asked by reporters if a foreign government interfering with the election gave him pause. He responded by saying, “Hey, you know what gives me more pause? Is that a person in our government, crooked Hillary Clinton – here’s what gives me more pause — be quiet, I know you wanna, you know, save her.”
Revote 20167 says the following on their website.
“Every American has the right to have their vote protected from foreign attack! We abhor the injustice of the unprecedented attacks on our democracy by Russian Government operatives in our 2016 election. These attacks violated our right to a free and fair election.”
The group is using Article IV, Section 4, of the United States Constitution as the legal basis for their arguments to the Supreme Court. Article IV is known as the Guarantee Clause that states the following.
“The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.”
Revote 2017 says that “since Congress and the Executive Branch failed to protect us against invasion, our Judicial Branch alone can remedy this injustice.”
By injustice, Revote 2017 is referring to the injustice of the Russian interference in Elections 2016. The group will show the Supreme Court evidence of this interference and are asking the Supreme Court to nullify the results of Elections 2016 and are also hoping the Supreme Court will ultimately be “overturning all decisions and appointments that stemmed from its results.”
The group is also asking the United States government to implement more secure means of protecting “voting rights, campaigns, and election systems.”
The evidence list gathered by Revote 2017 is extensive, with an entire section of their website dedicated to evidentiary matters. The group notes that former FBI Director James Comey testified under oath that law enforcement officials were aware as early as the Summer of 2016 that Russia was interfering with the election.
The Trump campaign has also been accused of colluding with Russia to win the election.
Included in the evidence for Revote 2017 is a letter sent by former Senator Harry Reid to former FBI Director James Comey in October 2016.
@SenJohnMcCain You might want to re-read this letter from Harry Reid to James Comey from last Oct before you accuse Mr. Comey of wrong doing pic.twitter.com/wokl7tquAq
— @kwagner@post.news ?? (@kimwagner) June 9, 2017
The letter was addressing the notion that Senator Reid knew something about Russian interference in the election, and James Comey did as well but wasn’t informing the public. Senator Reid was not pleased about this.
“In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisors, and the Russian government – a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity. The public has a right to know this information…There is no danger to American interests from releasing it. And yet you continue to resist calls to inform the public of this critical information. By contrast, as soon as you came into possession of the slightest innuendo related to Secretary Clinton, you rushed to publicize it in the most negative light possible.”
By December 29, 2016, a Joint Analytic Report by the Department of Homeland Security with the FBI had confirmed that two Russian intelligence services intruded into a U.S. political party via cyber espionage. We know now the party intruded upon was the Democratic party when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) was hacked on almost the exact same day that Trump asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton.
The DNC was hacked with information being uploaded to WikiLeaks on July 22, 2017. The video shown above with Trump asking Russia to hack Hillary Clinton took place at a presser on July 27, 2017.
By December of last year, joint reports that included 17 intelligence agencies were affirming the Russians interfered with the election. It was something that President Obama affirmed also in October, but the intelligence agencies did not go public with that information for months. It was also in December 2016, when President Obama placed sanctions on Russia and removed Russian ambassadors from the United States for the same reason.
Further, it was in December 2016, when then Trump transition team member Michael Flynn spoke with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the phone. It would later come to light, after Trump’s inauguration, that he was not honest about that phone call. Michael Flynn then resigned from the Trump Administration.
Michael Flynn is also now allegedly under FBI investigation but has since, through his attorneys, pled the fifth amendment and invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination and has declined to hand over documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee now investigating the Trump Russia scandal.
Later in February, Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan would go on record to say, “We know Russia meddled in the election. No one is disputing that.”
But as recently as May, Donald Trump was disputing that.
The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017
In March, James Comey would confirm that it was Russia that used WikiLeaks to release hacked information, reports the Daily Kos. It was then also confirmed to the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI had been investigating Russian interference in the election since July 2016.
That means that the same time that Donald Trump was asking Russia to hack Hillary Clinton, Russian interference with the same election was being investigated by the FBI.
Further testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee in March revealed that part of that campaign of Russian interference included 15,000 operatives that engaged in spreading false news stories and conspiracy theories online to discourage voters from gaining accurate facts during the election cycle, reports CBS News.
By May, the news cycles were dominated by the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, as new details emerged that suggested Donald Trump fired him in order to squash the Trump-Russia investigation. The New York Times reports that Trump alleged to have fired Comey over his handling of the Hillary Clinton email situation.
But that’s not what Trump told Lester Holt of NBC News.
All of these elements, and more related to the Russian interference with Elections 2016, comprise the evidentiary package for the Supreme Court by Revote 2017. Even so, they face an uphill battle to have the entire election nullified and the entire Trump Administration removed from office, which is what they are seeking.
Project 538 reports that a “re-do” of an election is a “complicated matter.” Some legal eagles will say that there is no language in the Constitution that prohibits it from happening, while others say Article II of the Constitution does prohibit a re-do.
But a legal precedent has been established by some federal courts in America. A 1976 District Court in New York ruled that federal courts do have a role in ensuring free and fair elections, reports Project 538. In that 1976 case, the court wrote the following.
“It is difficult to imagine a more damaging blow to public confidence in the electoral process than by fraudulent registration or voting, ballot-stuffing, or other illegal means.”
Project 538 notes that the text of the Constitution dictates that the Electoral College has the final say on presidential elections. However, the Constitution did not have a backup plan in the event of foreign interference with an election.
Other means of accomplishing a fair democratic process in a world where election hacking is a thing are available. These methods would not be available to nullify results of any previous elections but could be pursued by Americans in future elections.
One method for Americans is to support the National Popular Vote Bill. This bill would “guarantee the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.” It’s already been accepted in 11 states and is a bill with 165 electoral votes supporting it.
It is an interstate compact that will go into effect and become law when it receives 105 more electoral votes. Many red states are giving the bill serious weight. It has already passed in a Republican-controlled Arizona House of Representatives.
Congressman Don Beyer is also working on a bill to fight gerrymandering in future elections, reports The Nation. That is the Fair Representation Act, a plan to democratize congressional elections, defeat gerrymandering, and ensure there is no such thing as “safe red” or “safe blue” seats in future congressional elections.
As those bills work their way through lawmakers for future elections, Revote 2017 continues its work to nullify the previous presidential election and let the Supreme Court decide what to do next, should they be successful.
[Feature Image by Susan Walsh/AP Images]
