June, 12 2019, 12:00am EDT
Stand Up America Drives 50,000 Constituent Calls to Congress Demanding an Impeachment Inquiry After Mueller Report
SUA Community Members Have Taken Action in Every Congressional District in the Country
New York, NY
Just two weeks after launching a nationwide campaign urging House Democrats to swiftly begin impeachment hearings, Stand Up America is announcing that it has surpassed 50,000 constituent calls to Congress demanding an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump based on the findings of the Mueller report.
In the past 48 hours alone, the Stand Up America community has made over 20,000 constituent calls, reaching every congressional district in the country. Hundreds of Stand Up America members have also pledged to visit lawmakers' offices to demand impeachment inquiries.
"In every single congressional district, Americans are standing up and speaking out to ensure their representatives hear them loud and clear: no one is above the law in the United States of America," said Stand Up America's Political Director Brett Edkins. "The evidence in the Mueller report is far too damning to ignore. Donald Trump welcomed an attack on our democracy from a hostile foreign power and then broke the law to obstruct justice and bury the truth. That's why Stand Up America members in every corner of the country are keeping up the pressure on lawmakers to swiftly begin an impeachment inquiry."
Momentum continues to build for progressives calling for impeachment hearings, with at least 61 lawmakers publicly supporting an impeachment inquiry and many more reporting the increased number of constituent calls in support of an impeachment inquiry over the last week.
Stand Up America's campaign to pressure House Democrats on impeachment includes:
- Emails and social media driving tens of thousands of constituent calls to Congress;
- A new online tracker that educates constituents about their representatives' position on impeachment inquiries;
- The launch of a new website, StandUpCongress.com, a tool that enables constituents to schedule in-district office visits to urge lawmakers to support impeachment hearings;
- An SMS and peer-to-peer message program that educates voters about their representatives' position on an impeachment inquiry, with Stand Up America volunteers texting constituents using information from the voter file to specifically target constituents of House Democrats and House Judiciary Committee members; and
- New digital advertisements encouraging Americans across the country to join the Stand Up America community in demanding an impeachment inquiry.
Stand Up America will continue to mobilize its community of nearly 2.4 million people to pressure House Democrats until they begin an impeachment inquiry.
Stand Up America is a progressive advocacy organization with over two million community members across the country. Focused on grassroots advocacy to strengthen our democracy and oppose Trump's corrupt agenda, Stand Up America has driven over 600,000 phone calls to Congress and mobilized tens of thousands of protestors across the country.
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Supreme Court That 'Let Trump Off the Hook' Allows Insurrection Ban on State Official
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Just two weeks after handing former U.S. President Donald Trump a crucial win, the country's Supreme Court on Monday turned down an appeal from the only public official removed from office for participating in the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
The high court—which has a right-wing supermajority that includes three Trump appointees and Justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife backed the Republican's efforts to overturn his 2020 loss—declined to take the case of Couy Griffin, who was booted off the Otero County Commission by a New Mexico court in 2022, after he was convicted of breaching and occupying Capitol grounds.
In response to a lawsuit brought by the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on behalf of New Mexico residents, the state's 1st Judicial District Court removed Griffin from his local post under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars anyone who has taken an oath to the U.S. Constitution and then engaged in insurrection from holding office.
"By refusing to take up this appeal, the Supreme Court keeps in place the finding that January 6th was an insurrection."
CREW also represented Colorado Republican and Independent voters who recently sought to get Trump—facing off against Democratic President Joe Biden in this year's presidential election—off their state's primary ballot, one of several 14th Amendment battles that emerged before the ongoing primaries. In Trump's case, the court determined that states can't ban federal candidates from ballots.
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Because of that first line, legal experts stressed, the Griffin denial is actually consistent with the justices' ruling in the Trump case, despite the apparent discrepancy. CREW said Monday that the high court "let Trump off the hook" but the group also welcomed the Griffin decision.
"By refusing to take up this appeal, the Supreme Court keeps in place the finding that January 6th was an insurrection, and ensures that states can still apply the 14th Amendment's disqualification clause to state officials," said CREW president Noah Bookbinder.
"Crucially, this decision reinforces that every decision-making body that has substantively considered the issue has found that January 6th was an insurrection, and Donald Trump engaged in that insurrection," he added. "Now it is up to the states to fulfill their duty under Section 3 to remove from office anyone who broke their oath by participating in the January 6th insurrection."
Griffin said on social media Monday that "I just found out (through the media) that my appeal to the SCOTUS has been denied. Very disappointed. I don't even know what to say. But I thank you for your prayers and for standing with me through this."
Less than an hour later, the Cowboys for Trump co-founder publicly pitched himself as a potential running mate for the presumptive GOP nominee, saying: "Has Donald Trump picked a vice president yet? Would be such an honor to only be considered."
The twice-impeached former president has not yet announced a VP. While Trump has defeated the 14th Amendment effort for now—though a November win could spark another court fight—he faces four ongoing criminal cases, two of which stem from his attempt to overturn the 2020 results. It's not clear if any of those cases will go to trial before the next presidential election.
In a bid to get his federal election interference case—and possibly others—dismissed, Trump is trying to claim presidential immunity. After declining to weigh in early on, the Supreme Court agreed to hear immunity arguments on April 25.
Trump's other election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia has been plagued by controversy involving the district attorney's love life. He also faces a federal case involving classified documents and a New York state case related to hush money.
Also in New York state, Trump, his real estate company, his adult sons, and a former executive were hit with major fines in a civil fraud case last month. His attorneys said in a Monday filing that obtaining a bond for the $464 million judgment—which includes what is owed by Don Jr. and Eric Trump—while he appeals is a "practical impossibility," meaning asset seizure is possible.
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In the nearly 5,000-page filing, lawyers for Trump said it has proven a "practical impossibility" for Trump to secure a bond from any financial institutions in the state, as "about 30 surety companies" have refused to accept assets including real estate as collateral and have demanded cash and other liquid assets instead.
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Trump himself was ordered to pay $454 million; the remainder was demanded from his sons, Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump.
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James has given Trump until March 25 to pay the judgment, which was announced last month as New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron found the former president and his real estate empire, the Trump Organization, had committed "repeated and persistent fraud," including by falsifying financial statements by as much as $2.2 billion.
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The attorney general said last month that regardless of Trump's difficulty in securing the bond, her office is "prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers" and suggested she would pursue asset seizure.
"I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day," James toldABC News, referring to one of Trump's buildings in New York's Financial District.
James hasn't publicly stated what other Trump assets she would potentially seize from the presumptive Republican presidential candidate.
On Monday, Trump asked an appeals court to issue a stay on the judgment, pausing enforcement while his appeal proceeds, or to accept just $100 million.
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"In this pivotal moment in human history, the United States must lead a new global movement based on human solidarity and the needs of struggling people."
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In a lengthy piece published in Foreign Affairs, Sanders (I-Vt.) asserted that "it is long past time to fundamentally reorient American foreign policy," a shift that starts with "acknowledging the failures of the post–World War II bipartisan consensus and charting a new vision that centers human rights, multilateralism, and global solidarity."
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Sanders' article examines U.S. foreign policy since World War II, underscoring commonalities between the many wars and acts of aggression perpetrated by Washington over the decades.
"Dating back to the Cold War, politicians in both major parties have used fear and outright lies to entangle the United States in disastrous and unwinnable foreign military conflicts," the senator wrote, noting the U.S.-led war in Southeast Asia in which as many as 3 million Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians and more than 58,000 American troops were killed.
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"Washington is still dealing with the fallout from such meddling today, confronting deep suspicion and hostility in many of these countries, which complicates U.S. foreign policy and undermines American interests," he wrote.
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