Congressman Greg Steube, a lawyer and Army veteran, represents Florida’s 17th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Steube also represents a hard right MAGA viewpoint, being, for example, one of “only 21 House Republicans who voted against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Steube, whose rhetoric commonly includes vitriol against the “deep state” in Washington, also actively contested the results of the 2020 presidential election and, more recently, supported resolutions to impeach government officials like Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray. (Rep. Greene has contended that “Merrick Garland’s corruption knows no bounds.”)
[NOTE: Garland was confirmed as AG by a bipartisan Senate vote of 70-30 and Wray was appointed FBI Director by Donald Trump, after being appointed assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division of the the DOJ by George W. Bush.]
Rep. Greg Steube says if a Republican president is elected in 2024 takes over DOJ and the FBI, he expects Joe Biden to be charged with treason. pic.twitter.com/hNPhJm6CYf
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 3, 2023
In an appearance on the conservative Benny Johnson podcast recently, Steube said President Biden’s activities “one hundred percent rise to the level of treason.”
Steube said: “I hope that if a Republican, God willing, wins the presidency in 2024, after [Biden] is out whether it’s through impeachment or getting beat at the ballot box in 2024 that they’ll move forward with charges like that.”
No U.S. President has ever been charged with treason, though Vice President Aaron Burr was tried for treason in 1807 and acquitted. It is an extremely rare charge in general, with only 40 cases of treason prosecuted — and 12 people convicted — in U.S. history, according to the FBI via Associated Press.
[One of the last U.S. treason cases — and one of the few involving the death penalty — was that of Tomoya Kawakita, who in 1952 was sentenced to death via lethal gas for treason, a conviction and death sentence upheld by the Supreme Court on appeal. President John F. Kennedy later released Kawakita and he was exiled to Japan.]
President Biden has been the target of numerous attacks from Congress, including Rep. Greene’s efforts to impeach him, along with Garland, et al. But Rep. Steube’s assertion that Biden should face treason charges raises the level of the attack to a charge that is, according to the U.S. Constitution — and as seen in the case of Kawakita — punishable by death.
The U.S. code says of treason: “Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
