A "clear and present danger to American democracy"

Arlington Heights IL

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WASHINGTON — A preeminent conservative lawyer and former federal judge said Thursday that the theories pushed by his former law clerk, John Eastman, to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election results were baseless in every way, accused former President Trump of trying to “steal America’s democracy” and said Trump remains a “clear and present danger to American democracy.” “I would have laid my body across the road before I would have let the vice president overturn the 2020 election,” said J. Michael Luttig, in testimony to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters. Luttig served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for 15 years, and prior to that worked as a lawyer for Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. During his time on the federal bench, Luttig mentored numerous clerks who went on to positions of prominence in conservative legal circles and in Republican politics.