Legal experts are weighing in on Wednesday evening’s bombshell report in The New York Times that the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta resigned on January 4 rather than be fired by then-President Donald Trump for refusing to say the election was rigged and there had been massive voter fraud, which Trump had been falsely claiming.
Trump had appointed Byung Pak to be the U.S. Attorney in mid 2017. Hours after top DOJ officials either warned or pressured him – or both – on Jan. 3, that he would be fired, Pak sent his letter of resignation to the President. On Wednesday he told the Senate Judiciary Committee what had happened.
“DOJ has no choice now, they must open a criminal investigation on Trump,” says attorney Ron Filipkowski, a former Republican turned Democrat, after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis infamously fired a Health Dept. data analyst.
Former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman, now a constitutional law professor at U.C. San Diego and Los Angeles, calls it “repugnant.”
Former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman says there is “Mounting evidence of Donald Trump’s criminal intent under federal and Georgia state law.”
After this latest news Goodman says a “potpourri of criminal provisions potentially apply.”
And he lists “possible” federal crimes Trump may have committed:
Litman adds the firing may have been unconstitutional:
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