Five Points to Defend Our Democracy

As lead counsel for the impeachment investigation of former President Donald Trump, I helped expose how he abused the office of the President for his personal benefit. Trump flouted long-standing precedents, norms, and laws. His administration exposed significant weaknesses in our democratic institutions as he sought to enrich himself and protect himself, his family, his friends, and associates from legal exposure. Donald Trump put our country and our elections at risk through his lies, his support of violent interference with Congress, and his fraudulent efforts to maintain power.

The former president remains the leader of the Republican Party and the front-runner to be the Republican nominee in 2024. He has led changes to state laws around the country designed to allow for elected officials to overturn the will of the people. Congress must expose these corrupt efforts and pass laws that will safeguard our democracy against abusive and corrupt leaders, strengthen our institutions, and protect our right to vote. I support the following measures to defend our democracy:

1. Protect The Right of the People to Decide Elections

To protect the right to vote and ensure that voters – not politicians – decide our elections, we must:

Pass federal laws to prevent partisan elected officials from overturning the will of the people. Only courts should be permitted to adjudicate disputed election results.
Pass comprehensive election reforms to make voting easier and more accessible. We must also pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect against voter suppression.
Restore voting rights for felons who have served their time. Formerly incarcerated persons who have paid their debt to society should have the opportunity to participate in our democracy.

2. Ensure Fairness and Transparency in our Elections

In order to preserve the fundamental principle of one person, one vote, we must minimize the influence of special interests and ensure fairness in the electoral process. We must:

Ban partisan gerrymandering. District lines must be drawn by independent commissions.
Eliminate the Electoral College so that we elect our president the same way we elect other officials across this country: by popular vote.
Reform campaign finance laws by passing the DISCLOSE Act and Honest Ads Act to make political activity and advertising fully transparent.

3. Restore Legitimacy to the Supreme Court

Public confidence in the Supreme Court is at a historic low, in part due to serious questions about justices’ truthfulness under oath and potential conflicts of interests. To restore legitimacy to the Court we must:

Establish term limits for Supreme Court justices and all federally appointed justices.
Apply the Code of Conduct for United States judges to Supreme Court justices to ensure they are beholden to a code of ethics like all other judges.
Expand Congress’ oversight authority of potential violations of the Code of Ethics, including through investigations of potential violations that would be reported to Congress.

4. Prevent Presidential Abuses of Power

The Trump Presidency exposed the limits of traditional norms designed to hold the Office of the President accountable to Congress and to the American people. To prevent future presidential abuses of power we must:

Suspend the statute of limitations for federal offenses committed by presidents or vice presidents before or during their time in office.
Strengthen Congress’ subpoena power and ability to enforce subpoenas through inherent contempt.
Clarify the scope of executive privilege and provide for expedited review in the courts when privilege is invoked.
Limit the president’s pardon power and provide more transparency about presidential pardons.

5. Combat Foreign Interference and Domestic Disinformation

In recent years, our elections have been infiltrated by nefarious foreign actors and misleading domestic actors, both of which spread disinformation to interfere in our electoral process. To ensure our elections are free from foreign interference and domestic disinformation, we must:

Require campaign committees to report to the FBI and FEC any contacts by foreign governments or actors attempting to offer assistance to their campaign.
Make it a crime to intentionally make false statements about when, where, and how people vote.
Launch a Congressional investigation into purported voter fraud to expose the lie that widespread voter fraud exists.