(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The man at the heart of the 2016 Russia hoax that sought to usurp the duly elected president of the United States has now set his sights on overthrowing the commonwealth of Virginia.
Steele Dossier architect Marc Elias issued an X post Tuesday that urged Virginia citizens to “reform, alter, or abolish” the state government while calling the current leadership “inadequate.”
The post drew directly from Article 1, Section 3 of the Virginia constitution.
VA Const.
"whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal." pic.twitter.com/JRKMRqMQzF
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) May 12, 2026
It came as embattled Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the state’s Democrat legislative majorities find themselves on the ropes after a failed gambit to gerrymander congressional districts in their favor wound up backfiring spectacularly.
Elias weighed in a few days before Virginia Democrats officially lost their last-gasp appeal to U.S. Supreme Court, although precedent pointed to their error-riddled case failing from the starting gate.
In fact, Elias was one of the champions of 2019’s Rucho v. Common Cause, a North Carolina-based lawsuit in which the high court conclusively determined that cases involving partisan gerrymandering were the purview of the state courts.
Ironically, even though Elias has routinely counted on left-leaning judges to reverse the law in his favor, this time he appeared to be lashing out specifically at the judicial branch for failing to be cowed by Democrats’ demands to reinterpret the law.
“Now, Elias is reminding Virginians that they can respond to an opposing court decision by eliminating some or all of the Virginia state government,” wrote Georgetown University law professor Jonathan Turley. “It is the logic of the Jacobin.”
As Turley noted, Elias is notorious for flip-flopping his positions on issues based on what would be politically advantageous to Democrats in that moment.
He has selectively supported blue-state gerrymandering while fighting it in red states, and he has likewise fought against ballot-harvesting in red states while using it on multiple occasions to reverse the election-night outcome of tightly contested races.
Elias recently was appointed by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to oversee an Orwellian-named “Election Integrity Group” bent on using lawfare tactics to undermine the procedures, such as voter ID, that are most likely to hurt Democrats’ cheating efforts while decrying them as undemocratic.
President Donald Trump slammed the appointment of Elias and former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder, who also has been at the forefront of Democrats’ selective gerrymandering via “sue till blue” initiatives.
In a May 10 post on Truth Social, Trump promised his own “army” of lawyers and poll-watchers “to preserve the sanctity of each legal vote.”
However, Elias clapped back, saying “Trump’s latest attack on me is as unhinged as ever. I wear his scorn as a badge of honor.”
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
