If Congress will not impeach Donald Trump for all his impeachable offenses, it might be time to charge congresspersons with a crime and send them to prison.<\/p>\n
More on that later, but first some background.<\/p>\n
Treason is considered one of the most severe crimes a person can commit because it reflects a direct betrayal of the nation. Anyone convicted of treason faces penalties including death or long-term imprisonment, substantial fines, and permanent disqualification from serving governments at any level.<\/p>\n
It appears beyond any doubt that Donald Trump has committed treason numerous times.<\/p>\n
Section 3 of the Constitution\u2019s 14th Amendment stipulates that any U.S. citizen is guilty of treason who has \u201cengaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same {the United States}, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.\u201d On. Jan. 6, 2021, Trump not only led the insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, but he refused to stop it although he easily could have and although members of his administration begged him to. Instead, he watched the whole thing on television and refused to do anything.<\/p>\n
Twenty-two days later, Jeannie Suk Gersen wrote an article for the New Yorker under the headline \u201cDid Trump and His Supporters Commit Treason?\u201d, in which she wrote, \u201cFew events in American history have matched the Framer\u2019s definition as clearly as the insurrection of January 6th.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Carlton F. W. Larson, a treason scholar and law professor at the University of California, Davis, agrees. He wrote, \u201cThe Framers of our Constitution had a very specific image in mind \u2013 men gathering with guns and marching on the seat of government. Few events in American history, if any, have matched that description as clearly as the insurrection of January 6th.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s just one example of how Trump has committed \u201cone of the most severe crimes a person can commit.\u201d There are others.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump, acting against the advice of Vice President J.D. Vance and others in his administration, pardoned at least 13 persons who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy for their actions during the Jan. 6 insurrection. That means that although they had \u201dengaged in insurrection or rebellion\u201d against the United States, Trump had provided them \u201caid and comfort.\u201d How, according to the 14th Amendment, can that not<\/em> be treason?<\/p>\n Then, early last week, roughly $580 million worth of oil futures changed hands in a single minute, only about 15 minutes before Trump posted on Truth Social that the United States had been engaged in \u201cproductive conversations\u201d with Iran to end the war (which Iran flatly denies).<\/p>\n Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman described that sequence of events in these words: \u201cWe have another word for situations in which people with access to confidential information regarding national security \u2014 such as plans to bomb or not to bomb another country \u2014 exploit that information for profit. That word is treason.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course, Trump will never be charged with treason because the Supreme Court gave him permission to commit any crime he wanted to as long as he could connect it with his official duties. Until that moment, only kings and dictators had ever held such power.<\/p>\n History also works in Trump\u2019s favor. Since the Constitution was adopted, fewer than 40 federal treason cases have been prosecuted, and only three of them have produced executions. Furthermore, modern prosecutions are extremely rare. Instead, modern cases that could be considered treason are prosecuted under related statutes like sedition or rebellion\/insurrection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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