Luttig: “..Mike Johnson and his House Republicans would claim fraud in the upcoming elections and refuse to seat Democrat Members-elect who are elected to Congress by the American People….America’s time of testing has finally come."
Judge J. Michael Luttig
The Final Battle for America's Democracy
January 3, When the Republican House Refuses to Seat the Democrat Majority-Elect to the 120th Congress
JUDGE J. MICHAEL LUTTIG
AUG 16, 2026
Over the past three weeks, in the lead-up to Labor Day and afterward the two-month run-up to the mid-term elections, my friends David French, Tim Snyder, Joyce Vance, Heather Cox Richardson, and others, have all issued powerful and eloquent warnings about the evident intentions of Donald Trump and the United States Government to interfere in what otherwise could be expected to be the free and fair congressional elections in America on November 3.
Last week the Center for American Progress released its own comprehensive report titled, “The Trump Administration Is Interfering in the 2026 Midterm Elections to Entrench the Imperial Presidency,” which was itself a five-alarm fire alert about the imminent attempts by Trump and our United States Government to meddle unconstitutionally in the mid-term elections toward the end of ensuring that Republicans retain their majority in the House – regardless of the voting of the American People on November 3.
As long ago as last October, my friend David Graham of The Atlantic, @dgraham.bsky.social, in his article “Donald Trump’s Plan to Subvert the Midterms Is Already Taking Shape,” first raised the specter of Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, and the Republican House of Representatives actually refusing to seat a Democrat Majority-elect to the 120th Congress in January 2027.
And three weeks ago, in his New York Times piece, “What Keeps Me Up at Night,” David French raised the same specter that David Graham first raised last October, that Mike Johnson and his House Republicans would claim fraud in the upcoming elections and refuse to seat Democrat Members-elect who are elected to Congress by the American People.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/opinion/trump-midterms-fraud-corruption.html
I previewed this nightmarish scenario with my friend Ali Velshi @alivelshi Thursday night a week ago on The Eleventh Hour, calling January 3, 2027, the Final Battle for America’s Democracy, the final battle in Donald Trump’s War Against America’s Democracy that he instigated on January 6, 2021.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dDgKN4UeuAfcrioBrwf32mk1lBxq7xrB/view?usp=sharing
I told Ali that Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, and the Republican House have been preparing for this Final Battle for America’s Democracy since the first day that Trump returned to The White House in January 2025, and that they are at last determined to prosecute their war on American Democracy to its catastrophic end on January 3, 2027, when Mike Johnson and the Republican House refuse to seat the newly-elected Democrat Majority to the 120th Congress.
Two days later, early in the morning after the Republican Senate confirmed Todd Blanche to be the next Attorney General of the United States in the wee hours before leaving town for recess, I told The Weekend co-anchors Jackie Alemany, Eugene Daniels, and Jonathan Capehart that, Todd Blanche “now becomes the symbol of Donald Trump’s corruption of the Rule of Law in America.”
I went on to say that Blanche also now becomes “the point man” for Donald Trump and Mike Johnson on November 3 and January 3, when the Republicans refuse to seat the Democrats who were elected to the 120th Congress because of “fraud” in their elections.
The writing is on the wall.
In the waning days of the summer, everyone concerned for America’s Democracy, the Constitution, and the Rule of Law in America would do well to read, watch, listen, and heed all of the warnings above and prepare for the Final Battle for America’s Democracy.
America’s time of testing has finally come.
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Former United States Court of Appeals Judge (1991-2006