During a crucial phase of a case aimed at preventing former President Donald Trump from running in the 2024 election, a law professor testified that Trump had the authority to mobilize the National Guard and federal agencies to protect the U.S. Capitol when violence erupted on January 6, 2021.
William Banks, a national security law expert and law professor at Syracuse University, argued that Trump had various unutilized options once the Capitol attack began.
Banks emphasized that the former president should have fulfilled his constitutional duty to safeguard the security of the United States when the democratic process came under assault.
The testimony came in a case brought by a group of Colorado voters who seek to disqualify Trump from the ballot, alleging that he violated his oath to uphold the Constitution in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. They invoke a seldom-used clause in the 14th Amendment, passed shortly after the Civil War, which prohibits individuals who “engaged in insurrection” against the Constitution from holding higher office.
