This 'coded' Marjorie Taylor Greene tweet may be decisive in kicking her off the ballot: attorney
Before controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was permanently banned from Twitter for repeatedly pushing pandemic misinformation, the first-term member of Congress may have implicated herself in Donald Trump's coup attempt — and it could prevent her from seeking re-election.
On Friday, Greene will be forced to testify under oath about her role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in response to a lawsuit challenging her eligibility to seek re-election under the Constitution's ban on insurrectionists running for office.
"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress...who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress...to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same," reads Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Ron Fein, the attorney who will get to question Greene on Friday, was interviewed by MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin.
"As you know, I cannot give a sneak preview of the questions that we are going to ask a hostile witness, but even before we ask a single question, we know four things already," Fein said. "One is that she called for Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden to be executed for treason. She told her followers that they could not allow a peaceful transfer of power."
And then he pointed to a "coded" tweet than Greene sent on Jan. 5, 2021.
"She worked with the planners of some of the events of Jan. 6th and then the day before the attack, she signaled to her followers a code word, meant to storm federal buildings and supposedly overthrow tyrants. So, we are going to ask her about all of that and more," he explained.
The coded word referred to Greene referring to the blocking of the Electoral College as Republicans' "1776 moment."
In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed, starting America's Revolutionary War.
"'1776' was used as a codeword for violence in the run-up to January 6. For instance, Ali Alexander, a violent extremist who listed Representative Greene as a speaker at his January 6 event, and referred to Greene as a 'friend,' replied to a tweet by Greene on December 30, 2020, promising that '1776 is *always* an option' if objections to certification were blocked. The responses indicate it was understood as a call to storm the Capitol," the complaint alleges.
"Alexander increasingly used references to '1776' between December 30 and January 6 as a call for violence if Trump was not installed as president for another four years," the complaint continues. "By this time, it was well known that events Alexander planned and promoted developed into violence. Similarly, Enrique Tarrio, until recently the leader of the 'Proud Boys,' had on hand a detailed plan for the far-right extremist group to distract police, swarm federal buildings, and obstruct their functioning. The title of the document describing the plan was '1776 Returns.'”
The complaint argues the tweet is a smoking gun.
"Greene’s references to '1776,' made two days after she took the oath to uphold and protect the Constitution, had a specific meaning to her intended audience, when taken in the context of her well-known history of advocating political violence, the widespread use of '1776' by violent extremists as a codeword for violence and for storming government buildings, and the widespread reports of planned violence on the Capitol. Specifically, her remarks had the intent and effect of signaling to her supporters that she was calling not for peaceful protest, but for violent resistance, to a peaceful transfer of power to the president-elect, in defiance of the Constitution," the lawsuit alleges.
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