By Andrea Thompson

If you’re anything like me, you often find yourself wondering if disgraced ex-president Donald Trump will ever face any real accountability for his crimes. Yes, sure, there are lawsuits and investigations and accusations galore. But frankly, it feels like there always has been, and yet, here we are still, with a man who’s still every bit as free and you and I, and even went so far as to run this country into the ground for four long years.

Sometimes, it is really and truly hard to believe that Trump will ever actually pay the price for his sins.

However, one of this country’s foremost constitutional law experts says there is actually an ages-old federal law that could allow prosecutors to hold Donald Trump accountable for the incitement of the January 6th Capitol riot that tore at the seams of this nation’s very democracy.

Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe sat for an interview with MSNBC’s Alex Witt recently where they discussed the most recent developments in the criminal cases currently being lodged against the insurrectionists.

“So, Laurence, the DOJ has actually named Trump, they’ve cited his false claims about the election, this in a legal argument to try to keep an accused capitol rioter under monitoring. Does that connection create any legal jeopardy for him?” MSNBC host Witt questioned.

“Well, it’s at least an indication that they’re beginning to connect the dots,” Tribe answered.

He goes on to explain, “That is, if it is the case as the Department of Justice has asserted in saying that somebody ought to be constantly monitored and not trusted to be completely at liberty, if they’re saying that part of what is fomenting violence even now is the claim by Trump and some of his followers that the election was stolen, and if that is fomenting violence now, then the claim that it was all stolen and that the mob should use force to prevent the transition of power to Joe Biden by interrupting the counting of the electoral votes on January 6th, all of that seems to be part and parcel of a violation of a very important federal criminal law that goes back to the civil rights, civil war era. That is, 18 U.S.C § 2383.”

The Harvard Law professor was citing the section of a federal law that covers rebellion or insurrection.

“Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States,” the federal law states.

“That law, I think, may well apply to Donald Trump,” Tribe revealed.

We can only hope that he’s correct, and prosecutors find a way to use it.