Thread by @TimInHonolulu

1. Did @SenateGOP @HouseGOP who advocated overthrow of our election commit a crime? I think they did and they can and should be charged under 18 U.S. Code § 2385 - Advocating overthrow of Government. First, my analysis of the statute focuses on whether the member advocated

2. the overthrow of the US Govt. Our nation is a democratic Republic. We have established a Constitution that provides for electing our President. The process has existed for over 215 years without being attacked by members of Congress. The move by members like @tedcruz and

3. @HawleyMO to support changing the votes of duly certified electors in six states to impose a White Supremacist dictatorship was overthrow. Nothing in our Constitution or Law provides legality to such an act. It was an attempted coup, and a reasonable juror could

4. make that specific finding. The issue is whether the conspirators' actions constituted advocating "force or violence." I note that the statute does not call for the use of "physical force or violence" just "force." So in the absence of threats of physical force the issue would

5. be whether the term "force" includes the application of force that is not physical force or violence. But asserting their coup in the well & in the context of threats against the @VP that ripened into an attempted murder of the @VP I believe that physical force was advocated.

6. Members comments on and off of the floor will be instructive. Cruz and Hawley in their attempt to advance their own political ambitions called for the use of force. They matched their rhetoric to Donald Trump's fascist rhetoric likely to curry favor with his base. But Trump

7. was advocating violent overthrow and the Congressional members who joined did not distinguish their support from the violent rhetoric advanced by Donald Trump and his supporters, rhetoric that eventually led directly to violent attack on the US Capitol.

8. The speech and debate clause protects the words used by members on the floor but it specifically carves out an exception to its immunity for "Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace." Thus, the force that Cruz and Hawley sought to use was the force of an

9. illegal unconstitutional act that was made in the context of threats to assassinate the VP to accomplish the overthrow. A reasonable juror could find that Cruz, Hawley and the five other @SenateGOP and all the @HouseGOP who voted to advance the overthrow after the

10. the attack. They should be investigated for violation of this statute. We have tools to defend our Constitution, but we must be willing to use them for these weapons against tyranny to be able to protect us. The first thing we must do is find the members who still advocate

11. overthrow even after the violent impact of the Trump call for overthrow has been witnessed in the Capitol. Those who do not condemn Trump's call to violence should be the focus of @FBIWFO investigation. They remain a clear and present danger to the Constitution, they are not

12. immune and have become willing members of an insurrection force. If it means charging seven @SenateGOP and over 100 @HouseGOP, so be it. @TheJusticeDept @GOPLeader @senatemajldr @GroverNorquist