Donofrio Speaks Out on New Trump Indictments

by Sharon Rondeau

(Aug. 1, 2023) — In the wake of four indictments from a Washington, DC grand jury against 45th President of the United States Donald J. Trump announced Tuesday evening, journalist Mark Naughton is hosting a “Twitter Space” discussing whether or not the charges are constitutional.

One of the speakers is Leo Donofrio, who claimed at approximately 7:25 p.m. EDT that the Electoral Count Act is unconstitutional.

It is The Post & Email’s understanding that although Donofrio retired his New Jersey law license some years ago, he likely renewed it within the last year or more.

The Electoral Count Act set forth rules for how the electoral votes from each state are counted in Congress following a presidential election. According to NPR:

The Electoral Count Act came as a reaction to the presidential election of 1876, which saw Democrat Samuel Tilden win the popular vote but ultimately lose the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes because of contested election results coming from three Southern states under the control of Reconstruction governments: Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana.

The three states each sent in multiple competing electoral returns, and Congress had no rules in place to deal with such a scenario.

During the broadcast Donofrio claimed that voting machines in Arizona failed to “reconcile” vote counts in both the 2020 and 2022 elections “in Maricopa County only.”

Special Counsel Jack Smith has charged Trump with “conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights,” according to the indictment, which Smith said involved that Trump “spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won.”

Further, Smith claimed that in addition to pursuing “lawful and appropriate means” to change the election results, Trump “also pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.”

Smith had already written that the Trump campaign’s challenges of the results were “uniformly unsuccessful” (p. 2).

The Trump campaign issued a statement soon after Smith read the new charges against the 2024 leading Republican candidate. “This is nothing more than the latest corrupt chapter in the continued pathetic attempt by the Biden Crime Family and their weaponized Department of Justice to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election…” the statement begins.

Donofrio contended that “the states” have the authority to send the slates of electors to the Electoral College, not Congress, as stated by the ECA.

It was suggested to this writer following the 2020 election that at least part of the ECA is unconstitutional by the late Mario Apuzzo, Esq.

“America is not schooled in the Constitution, and most lawyers aren’t, either,” Donofrio said at 7:48. He characterized the ECA as Congress’s “usurping” of the states’ powers granted by the Constitution.

Donofrio further claimed that more information is “coming out” from the 2020 election in Arizona. “There’s stuff coming in Arizona that a fifth-grader can understand,” he said, saying that Michelle Swinnick and Josh Barnett have been working hard on the issue.

Swinnick was a judge during the election, Barnett said, and that “Michelle and I are working together.” Barnett is a former congressional candidate from Arizona’s first district.

“Trust me, folks, you don’t know anything…but pretty soon, you’re going to find out,” Donofrio said.

Following the 2016 presidential election, Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton claimed she won and not Trump, with her campaign paying for recounts in several states which did not change the outcome. She was not charged with “conspiracy” nor attempting to interfere with the “peaceful transfer of power” as has Trump.

Donofrio had researched the “natural born Citizen” issue extensively in the wake of the 2008 presidential election which declared Barack Hussein Obama the winner. Following the 2020 election, his work on the election outcome was published at The Post & Email, exclusively as far as we are aware, under the pen name, “Ren Jander.”

Update, 8:24 p.m. EDT: At 8:23 p.m., the broadcast unexpectedly stopped while Donofrio was speaking. Our attempt to log back on was unsuccessful, and Twitter, now known as “X,” appeared unresponsive.

At 8:29, the show was again accessible.