In today’s article, ‘The Trump Indictment Criminalizes Political Dissent’, I briefly touched on the laws that Democrat prosecutor Jack Smith abused to go after Trump.
“Describing publicly conducted election challenges as an effort to “defraud” the United States government turns 18 U.S. Code § 371 into an open-ended tool for suppressing a wide range of political dissent. Treating lobbying or any kind of advocacy as the equivalent of witness tampering weaponizes 18 U.S. Code § 1512 against virtually anyone trying to influence a function of government. Which is to say virtually everyone who is interested in politics. And finally deploying 18 U.S. Code § 241, originally designed to fight the KKK, against Trump and anyone trying to verify legitimate election results makes election fraud into a civil right.”
While the abuse of 18 U.S. Code § 241 to go after political opponents is obviously no laughing matter, in a sign of just how inappropriate the indictment is, we’re talking about a law designed to fight the KKK.
How explicitly are we talking about here?
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or
If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death
.No word on whether anyone in this case went in disguise on the highway.
Anti-Klan laws tended to include bans on masking. They were not intended to criminalize challenging or investigating election fraud. If anyone here is in disguise, it’s Jack Smith who is using a law designed to fight Democrats against Republicans.