235,000 Americans sign petition calling for treason charges for 47 GOP senators

The whitehouse.gov petition, filed on Monday, had more than 235,000 signatures as of mid-Thursday afternoon. The White House must respond to any petition that gets 100,000 signatures within 30 days.

The petition is calling for treason charges to be filed against the 47 Republican senators who sent a letter to Iranian leaders this week, warning them that Congress has to approve a nuclear deal that is made with the country.

Since then, the Republicans who signed the original letter — particularly Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton — have faced considerable criticism and blowback, ranging from the White House, to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif.

Though “traitor” doesn’t appear anywhere in the official petition, “#47Traitors” was trending on Twitter when word of the petition went viral. The petition pushes that the 47 lawmakers can be charged under the Logan Act, a 1799 law that forbids unauthorized citizens — in this case, the senators — from negotiating with foreign governments.

However, the law is out of date and likely would not be applicable in court, according to the New York Times.

Regardless, social media was abuzz about the petition — and now, with more than double the required signatures, the White House will be forced to add a response of its own.