Earlier today, it was reported that Donald Trump has begun privately threatening Republican members of the Electoral College with retribution if they fail to vote for him. This came to light when one of the Electors outed Trump publicly for it. We’ve done some subsequent legal research, and based on two very clearly worded federal statutes, it turns out Donald Trump violated the law in doing so.

First, here’s the Salon report from earlier today in which one member of the Electoral College publicly accused Donald Trump of making “threats of political reprisal,” including sabotaging the Elector’s political career. Now we move onto the legal research which I’ve done myself. I’m not an attorney, but the federal statutes in question are brief and are worded very clearly.

First we have “18 U.S. Code § 872 – Extortion by officers or employees of the United States.” According to the Legal Information Institute hosted on Cornell University’s website, it says the following in its entirety:

Whoever, being an officer, or employee of the United States or any department or agency thereof, or representing himself to be or assuming to act as such, under color or pretense of office or employment commits or attempts an act of extortion, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both; but if the amount so extorted or demanded does not exceed $1,000, he shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
This makes clear that if Donald Trump is currently considered to be an “officer” or “employee” of the federal government, he’s violating the law if he uses his position to extort the Electors into voting for him by threatening to sabotage their careers. Now comes the question of whether Trump is legally considered an officer of the government even though he hasn’t yet been sworn in yet.

To that end, we have “18 U.S. Code § 871 – Threats against President and successors to the Presidency” which states in part that it’s illegal to threaten or harm the “President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer.” This statute clearly defines the President-elect as being an “officer” of the federal government. President-elect is a title which Donald Trump acknowledges on his verified Twitter page that he currently holds.

In other words, based on these two federal statutes, Donald Trump is currently defined as an officer of the federal government, and he is therefore legally prohibited from using his position to extort anyone – including the Electoral College members who now claim that he’s threatening him. In fact 18 U.S. Code 875 stipulates a more severe punishment because it took place across state lines, which 18 U.S. Code 3559 in turn defines as a felony.

But the real world question is not so much whether Trump would be arrested or imprisoned for these crimes. The legal upshot is that if this election is ultimately decided by the Supreme Court or any federal court, Trump’s violation of the law in the name of securing the Presidency could be used as a disqualifying factor by the judges in question.

John Smith wrote on Dec 14^th, 2016 at 8:41pm:

With a cabinet of plutocrats and generals, Trump is, and would have always been, an autocrat.

do you losers ever quit..

you are a laughing stock... 

Frank wrote on Dec 14^th, 2016 at 9:00pm:

Trump is already a plutocrat... How small a hop is that from becoming an autocrat?

Frank wrote on Dec 14^th, 2016 at 9:32pm:

One... FDR.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Dec 14^th, 2016 at 9:47pm:

So you are here, wagging your finger and warning the world about a SECOND FDR???

You are out of your mind.