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With much of the report from Special Advocate Robert Mueller now published, President Donald Trump seized his origins to prove that he himself was a victim.
On several occasions, Trump used the word "coup d'état" to describe the efforts made by law enforcement to investigate Russia's influence on the 2016 election. .
For example, he stated this in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on April 25, 2019:
"It was a coup d'etat, it was an attempt to overthrow the US government, I think it's a lot bigger than Watergate, and I think it's perhaps the biggest scandal of the political history of this country, perhaps beyond politics … It was not stealing information from an office in the Watergate apartments, it was a coup attempt. "
We wondered if Trump was right in saying that he had been targeted by a coup d'état – the abbreviation of "coup d'état", the French term for the overthrow of the government. The experts told us that Trump's use of the term was wrong, both practically and legally.
What is Trump about?
The White House did not respond to an investigation of this article, but the Washington Post's Philip Bump described the origins of the speech as part of a "classic Fox News feedback loop."
Trump seems to believe that enemies within the police have invented reasons to pursue him through Russian contacts in his campaign. Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two officials involved in the FBI's investigation of Trump, an FBI candidate, often figure in this alleged conspiracy. The two men were involved in a romantic relationship and shared text messages that, according to Trump, were biased against him. (Trump regularly attacks Strzok and Page on Twitter, in his interview with Hannity he called them "two sick lovers.")
For those who are not in the orbit of Fox News, connections "would be meaningless," writes Bump. "But for a Hannity viewer, and for Trump and Hannity in particular, all of this makes perfect sense.This is a summary of a case of bias, personal flaws and injustice that Fox News and Hannity have been preparing for a year. "
The evolution of this "feedback loop" is visible in Trump's tweets.
In the weeks leading up to Hannity's appearance in which Trump spoke of a coup, he retweeted or quoted in tweets several allies using the term. The first was pro-Trump commentator Dan Bongino, who told Fox & Friends February 18 that it "was an attempt at an illegal coup d'etat against the President of the United States".
Trump also tweeted or retweeted Tom Fitton from the conservative group Judicial Watch and Maria Bartiromo from Fox Business Network using the word "blow" before his appearance on Hannity.
How did the investigation really begin
According to the Mueller report, the triggering event of the opening of an investigation by the FBI on the links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government came about as a result of a meeting held in April 2016 between campaign advisor George Papadopoulos and a source who said that Russian government officials could offer "dirt" on Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails".
Mueller's report corroborates previous reports on the sequence of events that triggered the probe. Papadopoulos told a top Australian diplomat in a London upscale bar in May 2016 that Moscow had "messed up the politics" of Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails.
In late July 2016 – a few days after WikiLeaks had thrown away thousands of internal documents of the National Democratic Committee that were detrimental to Clinton – US law enforcement officials became aware of Papadopoulos' complaint.
"A week after the publication of (WikiLeaks), a foreign government informed the FBI of its interaction with Papadopoulos in May 2016 and its statement that the Russian government could help the Trump campaign," said Mueller's report (p. 6, volume 1). "On July 31, 2016, based on information provided by the foreign government, the FBI opened an investigation into a possible coordination between the Russian government and people associated with the Trump campaign."
This investigation became the investigation of Mueller's special lawyer after the dismissal of FBI director James Comey by Trump. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who was replacing the then Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who had challenged himself since the Russian affair, asked Mueller to lead the charge. independent inquiry.
It should be noted that Mueller has found no conspiracy with Russia; If Mueller had participated in a coup d'etat, he could have overturned the Ministry of Justice's directives and charged Trump.
What's a sudden?
The important point of this recapitulation is that the investigation was undertaken by the police and that it respected the laws in force.
On the contrary, the decisive element of a stroke is that it takes place beyond the limits of legality.
"We define a coup d'etat as the sudden and irregular (ie illegal or extra-legal) withdrawal from the executive power of an independent government," wrote the Coup D project. State of the University of Illinois & # 39;. Cline Center for Democracy in 2013.
Michael Klarman, a professor at Harvard Law School, told PolitiFact that the investigation on Russia "is not a coup d'etat because the FBI had very good reasons to" 39; open an investigation on Trump.It is incredible to believe that anyone within the FBI had the intention to overthrow elected President. "
Anthony Clark Arend, professor of government and diplomatic service at Georgetown University, nodded.
"By using the term" coup d'etat ", the president suggests that Mueller, and by extension his own justice department, are acting outside the law," said Arend. Yet Mueller "was appointed and overseen by Rod Rosenstein, Attorney General chosen by the President."
Nine of the 12 types of blows recognized by the Cline Center do not seem to have anything to do with what Trump is talking about, including military coups, rebellious coups, popular uprisings, dissenting actions, blows and clashes. State, foreign coups and international transitions. forced resignations and self-blows, in which the leader arms the other branches of government to entrench power.
Two other types cited by the center are defined by their distance – attempted strike attempts (which fail) and coup plot (which never reach the stage of realization). Any alleged coup against Trump would have been a coup attempt, since he is still in power. But that does not mean there was an attempted coup.
"To the extent that the investigation on Russia had begun before Trump's election and at a time when it was universally assumed that Hillary Clinton would be elected, it could not be an attempt to overthrow the US government, "said Richard Bulliet, historian of Columbia University. "It was an attempt on the part of the duly established state arms to prevent the seizure of the government by an intelligent or unconscious Russian agent."
Political scientist Peter F. Nardulli of the University of Illinois, lead author of the Cline Center report, agreed that Trump's definition would not be appropriate.
"The vast proportion of extrajudicial reversals of the government involves violence," said Nardulli. "What happened to Trump was simply the unfolding of a normal government procedure in accordance with the rule of law.It was a totally different kind of a coup d'etat."
Among the Cline Center categories, Trump would probably refer to a "counter-coup", which is defined as "the elimination of a usurper by members of the previous regime within a month of the coup."
But in the case of Trump, he did not take office by a coup d'état (he was duly elected by the electoral college) and the alleged counter-coup began even before winning the presidency. So it is also problematic to talk about a coup d'etat.
"I do not see how it would be a reasonable state of the art," said Richard Nephew, Adjunct Professor and Principal Investigator at the School of International Affairs and Public Affairs at Columbia University. . "We have a long and historic legacy of holding our senior officials and representatives accountable for their conduct."
Our decision
Trump said the investigation on Russia "was a coup d'etat, it was an attempt to overthrow the US government."
The investigation into Russia is the result of a police investigation that complies with the rules. This is very different from the coup d'etat, whose main characteristic is that it occurs outside the legal system. It should also be noted that the original investigation began even before Trump was sworn in, which means he was not even eligible to be deposed by a coup.
We are evaluating the Pants on Fire statement.
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