President Trump Must Immediately File A Declaratory Judgment
Action to Vindicate Himself and Put an End to the Election Controversy and New Impeachment
By Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
January 11, 2021
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| Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson |
Attached find the Houses' Resolution advancing articles of impeachment introduced today, January 11, 2021, against President Donald J. Trump. The House will be voting on the resolution on Tuesday of this week. Should the House vote to move forward with the impeachment, President Trump must immediately file a declaratory judgment action in federal district court.
The document alleges that President Trump committed a “high
crime and misdemeanor” when he "incited violence against the Government of
the United States." It also alleges that Trump “engaged in insurrection or
rebellion against” the United States," an act prohibited by the Fourteenth
Amendment.
To support these assertions it alleges that as a lead up to
the violence on January 6, 2021, President Trump "repeatedly issued false
statements asserting that the Presidential election results were the product of
widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified
by State or Federal officials." It
adds that "he reiterated false claims that 'we won this election, and we
won it by a 'landslide.'" It states
that "in context," those misrepresentations along with his saying
"if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a county
anymore," incited the crowd to enter the Capitol and interfere with the
Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.
The articles also refer to President Trump's January 2, 2021
telephone call to Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, during which
it is alleged that he told him that he needed to "'find' enough votes to overturn the
Georgia Presidential election results and threatened Secretary Raffensperger if
he failed to do so."
Because of these factual allegations and because they serve
as the foundation of the impeachment action, President Trump, as an interested
party with standing, should immediately file a declaratory judgment action
against Congress and the House of Representatives in federal district court under
28 U.S.C. §2201 and F.R.C.P. 57. There
exists a real live (not hypothetical) controversy between the House and him
which a court of law needs to decide, for Congress will not resolve the issue
given the results and disruption of the Joint Session on January 6. The declaratory action would terminate the
ongoing controversy regarding the integrity of the election. He needs to ask that the court declare what
his rights and obligations are respecting whether he lied to the American
people regarding the 2020 election. He
needs the election factual findings and ruling of the court to defend himself
in the impeachment proceedings. In the
action, he can challenge the votes in all the six or seven offending
states. He already has much of the
information he needs right in the Texas lawsuit, other legal actions, and evidence which he was
never given an opportunity to present in court.
Having proven that his claims of election irregularity were legitimate,
he would be able to show that the impeachment has no factual foundation and
thereby prevail in that regard.
He should ask for a jury trial and for a speedy
hearing. He needs to ask for full
discovery so that he can prove that he did not lie to the American people. Depending on who wins and losses, the case
must be fast-tracked to the U.S. Supreme Court.
All this needs to be done immediately so that the court findings can be
used to stop Biden's inauguration on January 20. Even if that inauguration cannot be stopped,
Trump still needs the court's findings to stop the impeachment and for his
future political career.
Having proven in court that his representations regarding
the integrity of the election are not false, there is no factual predicate to
the articles of impeachment. It also
shows that he was fighting for the Constitution and the rule of law and not to
incite violence against the U.S. Government.
Such a factual finding by a court will also show that President Trump is
not "a threat to national security, democracy, and the Constitution."
It will show that he did not "act[] in a manner grossly incompatible with
self-governance and the rule of law."
President Trump should also join a count in the complaint to have the court declare that Senator Kamala Harris, born in California to parents who were temporarily in the United States and not U.S. citizens, at best is a Fourteenth Amendment "citizen" of the United States, but not an Article II “natural born citizen." He has standing to assert that given that Joe Biden added Harris to his ticket to draw votes away from the Trump/Pence ticket.
Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
January 11, 2021
http://puzo1.blogspot.com
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Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
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