Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is now trying to argue that former President Donald Trump is already "constitutionally disqualified from holding office." 

Raskin attempted to make the argument on Monday during an appearance on MSNBC's The ReidOut.

"Constitutional disqualification"

Raskin based his argument on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Raskin said:

 After the Civil War, during the Reconstruction, it was the Republican Party which insisted that anyone who has sworn an oath to support the Constitution but who violates that oath by engaging in insurrection or rebellion may never hold federal or state office again. That’s a constitutional disqualification from office.

The relevant portion of the U.S. Constitution can be found here:

The key question, of course, is whether Trump "engaged in insurrection or rebellion."

Raskin claims that Trump did, whereas many disagree.

Background

Raskin is one of the leaders of the House Jan. 6 committee - the highly-partisan committee that claims to be investigating the Capitol protest of Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump and many others have argued, convincingly, that this committee's real purpose is political - specifically, to do whatever it can to prevent Trump from ever holding office again. And, that appears to be what Raskin is trying to do with his argument that Trump is already disqualified.

In its latest move, the Jan. 6 committee voted to send a criminal referral to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for Trump.

According to CNBC:

The committee’s historic referral says there is sufficient evidence to refer Trump for four crimes: obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government, making knowingly and willfully materially false statements to the federal government, and inciting or assisting an insurrection.

It remains unclear how the DOJ will respond to the referral. Experts have highlighted the fact that this is a risky move by the Democrats because, if the DOJ turns the referral down, Trump will be vindicated, which would put an end to the Democrats' Jan. 6 charade for good.

"Double jeopardy anyone!"

Trump, on Truth Social, responded to the House Jan. 6 committee's criminal referral to the DOJ with a statement.

Trump wrote:

These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Americans know that I pushed for 20,000 troops to prevent violence on Jan 6, and that I went on television and told everyone to go home. The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party. The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!