Local attorney tells Alexandria Rotary about representing Jan. 6 defendant, other issues

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously will find states can't exclude former President Donald Trump from their ballots, one local attorney predicted Tuesday.

Ed Tarpley was the featured speaker at the Rotary Club of Alexandria meeting, sharing his opinions on that issue and others surrounding the upcoming presidential election and Jan. 6 insurrection court cases.

Tarpley was co-counsel in the trial Stewart Rhodes, who was the leader of the Oath Keepers group. He was convicted in November 2022 on a charge of seditious conspiracy and is serving an 18-year prison sentence.

The former Grant Parish district attorney began his talk by going over the section of the 14th Amendment under which the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Trump was ineligible for office. Because of that, he was removed from the state's ballot, but the issue will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Maine's secretary of state also decided to remove Trump from that state's ballot, but her decision is on hold.

But Tarpley disagrees, saying a reading of the section shows it doesn't apply to U.S. presidents. He agreed with an assessment from attorney Alan Dershowitz that these attempts are part of "the weaponization of law because so many people dislike former President Trump.

"What we have here is something that is unprecedented in the history of our country, and that is an individual state trying to disqualify a candidate for president."

He said the issue is of enormous importance to the country and that something like it never has gone before the U.S. Supreme Court.

It's a question that "needs to be cleared up, and cleared up quickly," he said.

Tarpley said only Congress can enforce the 14th Amendment, that there is no framework for a state or individual to do so.

As far as the issue of presidential immunity that Trump also faces, Tarpley called that "a horse of a different color" because there is little case law on the subject.

"Here we have an issue that has truly has never come before the U.S. Supreme Court in the entire history of the nature, and that has to do with criminal liability for official acts of a president," he said.

Presidents can't be held criminally liable for officials acts, he said.

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But some have taken the view that Trump was not acting in his official capacity as he claimed the election he lost to current President Joe Biden was stolen, but as a candidate. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Court last month rejected Trump's claim of immunity in a civil lawsuit brought by Capitol police officers and some Democratic lawmakers.

This issue on criminal charges will be examined by the U.S. Supreme Court, said Tarpley, but said prosecutor Jack Smith overstepped by trying to get it to the Supreme Court before it went through the appeals court.

He mentioned "the crazy questioning" that took place in arguments before the appeals court from one judge who asked Trump's attorneys if he could assassinate rivals without consequences if he has total immunity. Calling that a "ludicrous, gotcha question," he said Trump's attorney did "a really good job" in saying the president could be impeached and then prosecuted.

"I think that's where the court will come down, but hang on, it's gonna be an interesting case," he said, adding he thinks the appeals court will rule against Trump to send it to the Supreme Court.

As far as the criminal cases against the Jan. 6 defendants, Tarpley said most of them are being over prosecuted and that the full truth about the riots hasn't been revealed yet.

He called Rhodes a "political prisoner" who is serving almost two decades because he spoke against Biden's election being certified, even as he called it a "fascinating experience."

He accused two witnesses in Rhodes' trial — Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Capitol Police Special Agent David Lazarus — of lying under oath "about incidents that occurred in the Rotunda."

"The testimony was false," said Tarpley. "Perjured testimony in our trial. This is the sort of thing that we did not have that we now know because of the release of the video."

After he finished speaking, Tarpley answered a few questions from club members. One woman asked him if it was true that U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who was House speaker on Jan. 6, 2021, had the authority to call out the National Guard to the U.S. Capitol but did not.

Tarpley told the woman that was true, but that allegation was debunked just months after the insurrection.

The Associated Press answered the question in July 2021, stating the House speaker doesn't have that authority. Instead, it lies with the Capitol Police Board, and it decided not to have the guard at the Capitol initially.

The board did request its help after rioting started, however.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Ed Tarpley talks Jan. 6, Trump legal issues before Alexandria's Rotary