The Fate of the Oath Keepers’ Leaders Should Put Trump in the Slammer
(Pursuant to three legal doctrines, it’s time to put the nail into the coffin of Donald Trump’s liberty.)
By
David Gottfried
Under rudimentary doctrines of the Law of Agency, “Respondiat Superior,” and the law of conspiracy, Trump is as guilty as sin. More specifically, it’s time for him to bear the guilt that to date has only been meted-out on his underlings, the unwashed rabble who were once described by Obama as a sorry lot obsessed with “god, gays and guns.”
A) Agency Law makes Trump guilty. Consider this scenario:
1) Andy the Agent works for Peter the Principal. Andy the agent divined a neat and nifty means which will ensure that Peter wins an election. He will intimidate black voters (who don’t like Peter) to make them afraid to vote. He will bring lawsuits, which contest elections results, knowing full well that his legal challenges don’t have the slightest scintilla of merit. You get the picture.
2) Peter the Principal knows that Andy the agent is pulling these electoral stunts.
3) Peter the Principal does not tell Andy to stop what he is doing
4) Peter the Principal does not try to impede or obstruct Andy’s dirty tricks.
5) Result: Peter the Principal is liable for the acts committed by Andy the Agent.
Do you really think Trump did not know what his criminal confederates were doing. After all, on January 6, he demanded that metal detectors be removed because he wanted his rioters to be as menacing as they wanted to be. When he summoned Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn and others to the White House to negate the election results, do you think he really was unaware of their attempt to have the military seize the election machines and declare martial law.
B) By reason of the doctrine of “Respondiat Superior,” Trump’s guilt is unmistakable.
Under this doctrine, an employer is guilty of the transgressions committed by his employees. Unfortunately, sometimes employers may be immune when their employees commit the most heinous offences. For example, an employer may evade guilt by saying that when his employee raped a customer, that employee was not acting “within the scope of his employment” and that respondiat superior is inapplicable. _(However, the aggrieved customer can then argue that the employer was guilty of negligence in the hiring and supervision of employees.)
Although one can argue that when an employee raped a customer he was not acting within the scope of his employment duties (which were to sell cars), I think Trump will find it hard to argue that Sidney Powell, the leader of The Oath Keepers, etc. were not acting within the scope of their duties.
After all, didn’t all their duties, ultimately, come down to just one thing: the aggrandizement of Trump’s political power by any means necessary, democracy be damned.
C) The Law of Conspiracy makes Trump guilty of everything done by his allies in the 2020 election.
Under the Law of Conspiracy, every member of a conspiracy is guilty of every crime committed in the furtherance of that conspiracy. This may seem a bit harsh. But Trump should not be allowed to complain about harsh laws. After all, harsh penalties are his “raison d’etre.” This is a man who thought that hecklers, at his rallies, should leave in stretchers and whose draconian sense of justice made him separate children from their parents and put them in cages. Give the shithead in chief a taste of his own noxious, poisonous medicine.