President Trump Didn't Invoke the Insurrection Act

The Misbar team has determined that the claim is false. The Insurrection Act gives the president the authority to deploy the military to settle widespread unrest if a state requests it, or if U.S. laws are being obstructed by the unrest. It also necessitates the president to issue a proclamation demanding those participating in the insurrection disperse.

The President has not done this and has in fact, even acknowledged that the inauguration will occur on January 20th, 2021 and that he will not attend. The Department of Defense has said it is unaware of the act being invoked.

Professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, Claire Finkelstein, co-authored a post last year for a website focused on national security law and policy. In the post, she said any use of the military to try to subvert the election results would violate other federal laws and that, embers of the military would be in violation of laws if they assisted with overthrowing a lawful election. Adding that the act “has never been invoked to overturn an election or to intervene in peaceful political events of any kind. Indeed, it has never been used in any context other than suppressing civil unrest.”

President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration is scheduled for January 20, 2021. We rate the claim as false.