Donald Trump Could Be Arrested For Trespassing If He Refuses To Leave White House, Author Says
Author Maximillian Potter used a Wednesday Twitter thread to resurface a previously speculated scenario where Donald Trump refuses to leave the White House and is subsequently arrested for trespassing.
“Trump would no longer be immune from criminal prosecution, and could be arrested and charged with trespassing in the White House,” he tweeted, quoting a February piece for The Atlantic that outlined the scenario.
“Secret Service presumably would not follow an illegal order to protect one from removal from office,” he added.
Potter resurfaced the scenario as Trump continues to challenge the results of the 2020 election, which mainstream media outlets have called for Democrat Joe Biden. As noted by Washingtonian, the president-elect’s campaign addressed the possibility in a statement that hinted at the course of action they would take.
“As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”
As outlined in The Atlantic, the former vice president could use federal agents to remove his predecessor from the White House.
Trump continues to claim that his opponent’s win is the result of widespread electoral fraud in the mail-in voting process. However, he has yet to make significant progress in any of his various lawsuits contesting the outcome.
As The Inquisitr reported, Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger claimed that many of his colleagues are waiting for Trump to accept that he was defeated by Biden. While Kinzinger supported Trump’s right to contest the results, he also highlighted the American tradition of accepting loss and moving on by congratulating the president-elect.
Despite Trump’s pushback against the results, reports suggest he understands he has lost. But instead of going quietly, the head of state is allegedly attempting to delay the certification of his challenger’s victory as long as possible before announcing a 2024 presidential run.
Once out of the White House, Trump could face charges from various investigations into his business dealings. According to Michael Conway, former counsel of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Biden should consider pardoning Trump for any applicable crimes. In a piece for NBC News, he noted the 1915 Supreme Court opinion in Burdick v United States, which deems that such action — which the former vice president has expressed opposition to in the past — requires the commander-in-chief to admit to his purported crimes.
“Pardoning him may be the only way that Trump even implicitly concedes he did anything wrong.”
Nevertheless, even with pardons, he could still face state charges from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s New York-based investigation.
