Saturday, December 11th, 2021
Options for coup
Power point presentation exposes Trump’s coup plans
Almost a year after the storming of the Capitol, it is becoming increasingly clear that ex-US President Trump was ready to keep power by any means. A power point presentation shows the master plan behind the riots.
The House of Representatives special committee investigating the January Capitol storm has received new evidence that there has been at least some coordination between US President Donald Trump and the attack organizers. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows handed over a power point file recommending Trump to declare a national security emergency in order to make himself president again. The British “Guardian” reports.
Meadows was in possession of a PowerPoint presentation the day before the attack on the Capitol, describing possibilities for staging a coup. This suggests that he knew of Trump’s efforts to prevent the swearing-in of newly-elected President Joe Biden on January 6th. The power point presentation entitled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for Jan 6” contained several recommendations on how Trump could still keep the presidency .
According to the newspaper, Meadows gave a 38-page version of the power point presentation he had received by email. However, the paper has another version with 36 pages, dated January 5, which differs in some points from the one that Meadows had submitted. However, the title of the PowerPoint presentation and the recommendations it contains are the same, estimates a source familiar with the processes.
Leading role for Pence
Accordingly, senators and members of Congress should first be informed of foreign interference, whereupon Trump could declare a national emergency, invalidate all electronic votes and ask Congress to agree on a constitutionally acceptable means. The presentation also outlined three possibilities for then-Vice President Mike Pence to abuse his largely ceremonial role at the January 6 congressional session, which was supposed to confirm Biden as president, and unilaterally bring Trump back to the White House.
Pence could have installed Trump’s electorate over Democratic objections in major states, rejected Biden’s electorate, or delayed the swearing-in to allow for a “review” and counting of only “legal paper elections.” The final option for pence is similar to what Trump’s attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, but also Steve Bannon, argued on January 4th and 5th. But Pence refused.
The recommendations in the PowerPoint file were based on unsubstantiated claims that there had been massive electoral fraud. Allegedly the “Chinese have systematically gained control over our electoral system” in eight important contested US states. The then acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and his predecessor Bill Barr, both of whom had been appointed by Trump, had already determined on January 5 that there was no evidence of electoral fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the 2020 election.
House investigators said they learned about the PowerPoint presentation after it appeared in more than 6,000 documents Meadows had previously turned over to the special committee. This week, Trump’s former chief of staff ended his support for the investigation.