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The House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection is talking about rewriting the 1807 Insurrection Act, which gives president wide authority to deploy the military within the United States to respond to a rebellion.
The discussions are preliminary, The New York Times reported, as some see a doomsday type scenario where a future rogue president may try to use the military to stroke an insurrection but others worry about removing the power of a president to quickly deploy armed troops, as presidents did in the Civil War and civil rights eras.
Donald Trump never invoked the law as president. But he threatened to use it against protesters in Lafayette Square who were objecting to the police killing of George Floyd.
Trump adviser Stephen Miller also suggested invoking it for use at the southern border but then Defense Secretary Mark Esper shot that idea down.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the President to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops against an insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination or conspiracy which results in the deprivation of constitutionally secured rights, and where the state is unable, fails, or refuses to protect said rights.
The House committee investigating the January 6th insurrection is talking about rewriting the 1807 Insurrection Act – then President Donald Trump threatened to use it againt protesters in Lafayette Park in June 2020
Trump ultimately didn’t invoke the act but the park was cleared of protesters by tear gas so the then-president could walk across it; they were protesting the police killing of George Floyd
It dates to the early 19th century, when President Thomas Jefferson signed it amid concerns that Aaron Burr, his former vice president, was plotting to raise an army.
It was first used in 1861 against the Confederacy.
It was famously invoked by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 to quell white resistance in Little Rock, Arkansas, to the desegregation of the high school by the Little Rock Nine.
The act has only been invoked twice in the past 40 years – to quiet unrest after Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and during the Los Angeles riots in 1992.
After Joe Biden was declared the victor in the 2020 presidential election, some Trump supporters suggested using the military to declare martial law and seize voting machines.
In December 2020, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers militia group, wrote an open letter to Trump where he encouraged him to ‘use the Insurrection Act to ‘stop the steal,’ begin seizing voting data and order a new election.
‘Clearly, an unlawful combination and conspiracy in multiple states (indeed, in every state) has acted to deprive the people of the fundamental right to vote for their representatives in a clear, fair election,’ Rhodes wrote, adding, ‘You, and you alone, are fully authorized by the Insurrection Act to determine that such a situation exists and to use the U.S. military and militia to rectify that situation.’
An executive order was drafted, complete with a dotted line ready for Trump’s signature.
The order would have directed the secretary of defense to ‘seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention’ under a law that relates to preserving election records.
January 6th Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson confirmed in January the panel had seen the draft order.
‘If you are using the military to potentially seize voting machines … the public needs to know,’ he told CBS’ Face the Nation.
Trump had directed Rudy Giuliani, who was his personal attorney, to call the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to determine whether it could legally take control of voting machines in key swing states.
Trump also had asked Attorney General Bill Barr whether the Justice Department could take the voting machines. Barr told him no.
Trump continues to falsely state he lost the November 2020 election due to widespread fraud despite multiple court losses and audits confirming Biden’s victory.
Trump also considered using the act in the aftermath of the 2020 election to seize voting machines – above Trump supporters clashed with police on January 6th
President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John’s Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in June 2020 after the park was cleared of protesters, who were objecting to the killing of George Floyd
Committee members says the act warrants a review.
‘There are many of us who are of the view that the Insurrection Act, which the former president threatened to invoke multiple times throughout 2020, bears a review,’ said Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a member of the January 6th committee, told the Times.
Additionally, in June 2020, aides drafted an order to invoke the Insurrection Act in case Trump wanted to deploy active-duty troops in Washington D.C. to quell the protests that followed the killing of George Floyd, the black man in Minnesota murdered by a white police officer.
Trump as infuriated by the demonstrations, a huge one which was taking place in Lafayette Square across from the White House.
He told Barr, Esper, and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley that he wanted thousands of active-duty troops on the streets of the nation’s capital.
The three men talked him out of the plan. But other aides drafted the order in case the situation worsened or if Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser would not impose a city-wide curfew, which she ultimately did.
United States Park Police and other federal officers cleared the Square so Trump could walk across it and pose at St. John’s Church with a bible. Authorities used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the area of peaceful protesters.
Esper also mobilized a National Guard deployment in the city to help out. The D.C. National Guard reports to the defense secretary.
Milley later apologized for taking part in the walk with Trump.
‘I should not have been there, he said shortly after the event. ‘My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.’