Raskin says January 6th Committee hearings 'will expose every facet' of the coup attempt - Then what?

Jamie Raskin, a member of the January 6th Select Committee, is giving us a preview of what the hearings will reveal, by making it clear the January 6th Committee has put together all the evidence they need in order to definitively call the events of January 6th a coup attempt. (We already knew it was a coup attempt, but more evidence is nice I guess.)

I may be understating things a bit, as Raskin was the head of the House impeachment managers during Trump's 2nd impeachment. The House's presentation in the Senate was so convincing that a number of Republicans privately acknowledged they had undeniably made the case that Trump incited the Insurrection. (Of course, those same Republicans committed treason by voting to acquit Trump and thereby cover up his coup attempt...)

"We now have evidence to support the story of the worst presidential political offense against the Union in American history," Raskin tweeted Friday. "The [January 6th Committee] hearings in June will expose every facet of the assault against our democracy and Constitution on 1/6."

"No president has ever come close to doing what happened here in terms of trying to organize an inside coup to overthrow an election and bypass the constitutional order," Raskin said at an event on Thursday, according to NBC. "And then also use a violent insurrection made up of domestic violent extremist groups, white nationalist and racist, fascist groups in order to support the coup."

https://www.newsweek.com/jamie-raskin-says-june-hearings-will-expose-every-facet-insurrection-1702364

https://twitter.com/jamie_raskin/status/1520056793942175744

(As a side note, Republicans and their supporters are not fascists. An actual fascist would have removed them from office by now, or just thrown them all into the gulags for posing a threat to national unity. Another fun fact, the House chamber has two giant fasces by the podium and was one of the few areas inside the Capitol that was actually defended during the Insurrection. Yet another fun fact: the symbol of the House is a giant fasces, and Nanci Pelosi wore a pin of it during Trump's first impeachment!)

"January 6 ‘was a coup organized by the president’, says Jamie Raskin

“We’re going to tell the whole story of everything that happened. There was a violent insurrection and an attempted coup and we were saved by Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with that plan,” said Raskin."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/19/donald-trump-jamie-raskin-january-6-committee-capitol-attack

"Today, in a Post Politics Now interview, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said that the House select committee probing the Jan. 6 insurrection will issue a report that will be “profuse in setting forth crimes that have not yet been alleged” and that the panel, on which he sits, is planning public hearings in May and June. The aim, Raskin said, is “to prevent coups and insurrections going forward.”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/13/biden-new-phase-ukraine-war/

"The hearings will tell a story that will really blow the roof off the House,"

[...]

Members of the committee plan to hold those hearings in June and aim to have a report out about their investigation by the end of the summer or early fall, said Raskin, who sits on the panel."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/jan-6-revelations-will-blow-roof-house-rep-jamie-raskin-says-rcna25542

"Raskin said the committee will present "evidence" that proves there was coordination among then-President Donald Trump and his inner circle and his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The plan was to use then-Vice President Mike Pence to try to get President Joe Biden's electoral vote tally below the 270 majority needed for victory, Raskin said, which under the 12th Amendment would shift the contest to a vote in the House. If that occurred, he said, Republicans would have the majority to seize the presidency because the votes would be cast by the state delegations, and the GOP controls more state delegations than the Democrats do."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/jan-6-revelations-will-blow-roof-house-rep-jamie-raskin-says-rcna25542

It is very important to note the fact that Raskin is including the Republican politicians who were involved in the Coup Vote and other plans as participants in the coup attempt. It was not just the rioters who broke windows and trespassed during the Insurrection, but a majority of the Republican Party itself who attempted the coup.

"Jan. 6 is not ancient history. It’s living history and a continuing struggle for both constitutional democracy and the truth that will shape America for decades.

The GOP, under Trump’s thumb, has positioned itself outside the constitutional order."

"The MAGA Party doesn’t accept the validity of elections when they lose. And they are legitimizing deranged violence as an element of what they call ‘political discourse.’"

"The @January6thCmte hearings in June will expose the truth about the deadly assault on our democracy on 1/6 and the continuing threat of political coups and electoral sabotage in America."

https://twitter.com/jamie_raskin/status/1527352580191289349

“Well, people still have not yet fully understood the distinction between the violent insurrection and the attempted coup. Even with the insurrection, even within the insurrectionary violence, a lot of people think that this was just a rowdy demonstration that got out of hand,” Raskin told Daily Kos.

[...]

“So there’s a lot of confusion about what took place. And I think people will come to understand that this was a premeditated and coordinated violent attack on Congress and the vice president in order to thwart the counting of electoral votes,” Raskin said.

But the insurrection is only comprehensible when you understand that it was unleashed as a way to assist this political coup, this inside political coup. Donald Trump and his entourage had been looking for ways to overthrow the 2020 presidential election results for months,” Raskin said.

What the public hearings will do is tell the story of “every step in that process,” he explained.

“And it is a harrowing and gripping and utterly sobering story rooted in the events of the day and the weeks before it,” he added.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/20/2092837/-Who-cares-about-an-insurrection-An-interview-with-Jan-6-investigator-Jamie-Raskin

Promisingly, Raskin's rhetoric is quite similar to what I've been writing on this blog for over a year (and what millions of sane Americans have been saying).

Like us, he agrees that (1) the Republican Party is operating "outside the constitutional order", (2) the 2020 election coup attempt was bigger than the Insurrection and rioting, (3) the 2020 coup attempt was a political coup organized by Republicans at least months prior to January 6th itself, (4) the Republican Party recently declaring that coup attempts are "legitimate political discourse" for their party is something to take extremely seriously, and (5) Republicans are going to attempt more coups if they are not held accountable. Raskin also agrees that Trump confessed to the coup attempt a few months ago.

(As an additional sidenote, in the Daily Kos interview, Raskin says the 2020 election coup attempt was a self-coup. But I disagree with this. The 2020 election coup attempt was an attempt at a full-on regime change--just like a "standard" coup. Although Biden had not yet taken office, it was definitive that he was the victor, and, legally speaking, it was assured that he would become the next president. The Republican Party's goal was to topple his "regime" before it even began.

A self-coup is when a legally-empowered administration decides to go beyond the powers constitutionally granted to it, dissolve the constitution without following procedures, etc. Trump would have been committing a self-coup had he done something like declare martial law and cancel the election or suspend the Constitution to enact 'emergency powers' prior to the election happening.

After the 2020 election, the Trump "regime" was over. We just have a very long transitional period before the next president takes office. Trump was legally-empowered during the 4 years of his term, but the next 4-year presidential term was not legally his. Anything he would have done to disempower the incoming legal "regime" (i.e. Biden) is just a "regular" coup/regime change.

A better example of a self-coup--that we need to talk more about--is the Republican Party in Congress breaking their oaths to be impartial jurors during Trump's impeachment trials, Republicans in Congress announcing they will not seat any judges nominated by Democratic presidents, etc. In those situations, the politicians were legally elected, but the party decided to systematically ignore the Constitution. The Constitutional Crises that have stemmed from their self-coup won't be addressed by the January 6th Committee, since the Republican self-coup is an entirely different phenomenon).

***

It sounds like the January 6th Select Committee has done its job uncovering the evidence and piecing it together, and the upcoming hearings will thoroughly document all of the crimes that took place leading up to the coup attempt.

But the real question is: will there be any consequences? Or will it be like the hearings over the Mueller Report and both of Trump's impeachments? An overwhelming mountain of evidence (which would have led to a regular person being tortured in Gitmo for the rest of their life) that was simply ignored, because the Republican Party is apparently allowed to operate completely outside of the law and Constitution itself.

We've already known that Trump was trying to rig the election and that he tried to overturn the result once the rigging attempts failed. He publicly admitted his aims before the election was even over, ffs!

The January 6th Select Committee's hearings will be pointless if there are no consequences for those who were involved in the coup attempt. This includes not just Trump, but his inner circle, everyone who wrote a Coup Memo, and--most importantly--every last Republican politician who participated in the coup attempt by voting to overthrow the election, or who otherwise gave aid and comfort to the insurrectionists.

At absolute minimum, this means all 147 Republican politicians who voted to support the coup attempt are immediately removed from office on the basis of the 14th Amendment. They have remained in Congress illegally for over a year now.

Due to the unfortunate realities of the legal system, it seems unlikely that the most obscure of these politicians will face any criminal charges--even though they would be justifiably charged and convicted of treason if this country had any integrity.

Another condition of the absolute minimum--everyone who wrote or transmitted a Coup Memo, the leaders of the Coup Vote in Congress (e.g. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Mo Brooks), politicians who worked directly with Insurrection organizers (e.g. Mo Brooks, Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, etc.), and other politicians who played key roles in the coup attempt (e.g. Lindsey Graham) MUST face criminal charges for their participation in the coup attempt.

Only pressing charges against Trump will be meaningless. Trump already confessed to trying to "overturn" the results of the election. What's the point of the Select Committee's investigation when Individual-1 has already confessed under his own volition?

If the Department of Justice does not move forward pressing charges against the individuals mentioned above, then it is a signal that they (along with Biden, who could fire Garland and replace him with someone who will uphold their duty) are willing participants in the coverup of the coup attempt.

It will mean we are still not safe from the future coup attempts that Republicans have openly announced they are planning. It means the Republican Party will remain a terrorist organization which openly supports insurrection and coup attempts as part of its official strategy. It will mean America faces the daily risk of civil war and collapse. It means we will still be slaughtered during the next Republican insurrection.

That is why the Justice Department MUST pursue criminal charges against all Republican politicians who helped organize and carry out the coup attempt. That is the only way our country can change its course and the only way disaster can be averted. Focusing charges solely on Trump and his cronies (who no longer hold significant power) will be a mere distraction and allow us to fall into complacency.

***

What would a beyond-bare-minimum scenario look like? Realistically, all 147 Republican politicians who voted to overthrow the government can face criminal charges for engaging in the "Green Bay Sweep" conspiracy to overturn the legal results of the election. The "Green Bay Sweep" was a seditious conspiracy devised by Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, the goal of which was to reject enough legal electoral votes to tip the election in Trump's favor. (We have more accurately been calling this the Coup Vote.)

While John Eastman and others focused on developing a seditious conspiracy for Vice President Pence to carry out, the "Green Bay Sweep" was the corresponding act of sedition that Republicans in Congress would have to carry out in order for the coup attempt to work. The coup organizers themselves have admitted over 300 Republican politicians had gotten together to go over the plan for January 6th--providing evidence they were part of the conspiracy and didn't just spontaneously decide to vote against certifying the election. Unlike Pence (who refused to play along), those 147 Republican members of Congress carried out this seditious conspiracy and thereby committed an actual act of sedition. (The seditious conspiracy (i.e. a plan) and the actual carrying out of the act of sedition are separate crimes).

It is extremely unfortunate to think that this is not the bare minimum scenario. But the Democratic Party is so incompetent, and has set the bar so low, that we would be deluding ourselves if we think that justice is guaranteed. Democrats have already demonstrated over the past 6+ years that, even in the face of overwhelming evidence and public outrage, they may still choose to do nothing.

What would a best case scenario look like? According to the Constitution, the punishment for treason is death.

And don't tell me they didn't "really" commit treason. During George Washington's time in office, people were convicted of treason during the Whiskey Rebellion. If a bunch of drunkards rioting over whiskey taxes was enough successfully get a treason conviction, then A POLITICAL PARTY TRYING TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES is surely enough. If a bunch of drunkards rioting over whiskey taxes can be deemed domestic enemies of the United States, then the politicians who ORGANIZED AND CARRIED OUT AN ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES surely are.

In the coming months, we will likely hear a lot of Republican apologists repeating the nonsensical talking points that January 6th wasn't treason for reasons x, y, and z. Instead of succumbing to their gaslighting, we should assert the fact that January 6th apologists themselves are guilty of giving aid and comfort to enemies of America--i.e. treason.

***
***

...And what would a worst case scenario look like?

Republican politicians have promised bloodshed against those who do not embrace the Big Lie, Trump has told his supporters that they need to launch a second civil war if he faces any legal consequences, Republican Party leadership itself has officially declared the Insurrection and coup attempt to be a "legitimate political discourse", the Republican Party has giving a standing ovation to one of their politicians who advocated for assassinations, right-wingers are explicitly asking each other "when do we get to use the guns", coup organizers like John Eastman have declared the coup plots are still solid, professional traitors like Ted Cruz have promised to launch another self-coup to sabotage the government, and the list goes on and on...

We thought a coup attempt was unthinkable, yet it happened. Year after year we thought Republican crimes couldn't get any worse, yet Republicans continuously grew bolder and bolder after getting away with crimes without any punishment. If they are allowed to get away with a COUP ATTEMPT, then we shouldn't be surprised when they up the ante again. After all, they have already promised to do so (see previous paragraph)...

We will not be safe until every last one of these criminals are removed from society and our government proves that it is willing to uphold the law.

We must prepare ourselves for the worst case scenario NOW, or else it will be too late if it actually unfolds. The worst case scenario is just as likely as any of the other scenarios outlined. (Well, it is more likely than the best case scenario, sadly.) Now that we know what the Republican Party is capable of, and now that we have heard their promises of upcoming bloodshed on a scale not seen since the Civil War, we would be insane not to prepare to defend ourselves from what they are planning to unleash.

Until justice is dealt, we are not safe. The government enforcing the laws and removing every one of these dangerous criminals from society is the only thing that can remove America from the disastrous path we are on. But even in the best case scenario where all of the coup organizers and participants face the full extent of the law, there will likely be a continuous increase in far-right violence in the coming years.

Every non-treasonous American needs to (legally) get armed, train, and organize within our local communities so we can defend ourselves against the very real possibility of continued Republican violence. If we don't prepare NOW, it will be too late when they come knocking on our doors to slaughter us.

...If the worst case scenario unfolds (which means the majority of the Democratic Party and key figures of the Biden administration have decided to cover up the coup attempt and legalize Republican crimes), then we will know why Democrats have been trying to discourage left-wingers from getting armed over the past few years.

The Coup Memos

The evidence continues to mount that the Republican plot to steal the 2020 election was a well-planned inside job which was organized at the highest levels of the government. ...Each passing day that the Justice Department refuses to arrest these individuals who committed literal treason, our nation gets closer to collapsing.

Over 800 insurrectionists have been charged so far, many of them simply for trespassing in the Capitol. Why aren't the individuals who planned, organized, incited, and directed the coup attempt itself being arrested?

Trespassing is a severe enough crime, and phone GPS data is "iron-clad" enough evidence, to warrant immediate arrest, but literal COUP MEMOS are not? Wtf? (Do you remember the simpler days when using a private email server was the most important issue in the US, causing the FBI Director himself to declare Clinton was still under investigation for it days prior to the election, costing her the election... But now no one cares that dozens of politicians and Trump administration officials organized a goddamn coup using private emails and burner phones?)

Anyway...

***

Previously, I covered how John Eastman wrote two Coup Memos that Republicans used as the basis of pressuring Vice President Pence to carry out the coup.

Nearly a dozen other memos outlining coup plans have recently been revealed. Some of these memos are more detailed than others, but any communication which outlined a specific strategy, used statutory rationale, or provided other advice in order to urge for the coup can be considered a memorandum.

With this definition, we can consider the previously-reported plan to launch a military coup and then hold "new" elections (which was promoted by Trump advisor and former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, among others) to be yet another coup memo, in addition to the ones the media has recently reported.

These memos are important, because they demonstrate the coup attempt was not a top-secret scheme kept in the shadows by a handful of rogue individuals, but was a full-blown effort which enlisted the support of (at the absolute least) dozens of Trump administration lawyers and Trump-supporters outside of the government. The existence of written memos is not only a smoking gun demonstrating the criminal plot, but also shows that there were (at absolute minimum) nearly a dozen different teams peddling well-organized plots.

If the coup attempt was the work of only a few individuals who believed they lacked support from their party at large, we would have expected them to have kept their plans in extreme secrecy, writing and destroying vague notes, and keeping communications oral so there were no records. Instead, they had their LAWYERS gleefully write a bunch of memos and powerpoints, like some corporate bureaucracy!

They not only knew what they were doing--they fully intended to get away with it. Will Attorney General Garland allow these criminals to get away with almost overthrowing the US government?

*****

Here is the list of all the Coup Memos that I am aware of:

• Military Coup Executive Order Draft (1st draft)
• Military Coup Executive Order Draft (2nd draft)
• "We The People Convention" (Tom Zawistowski / Michael Flynn) military coup plot
• Donald Trump Jr. Memo
• Phil Waldron Coup Powerpoint
• Ginni Thomas texts (and Gitmo military tribunal plot)
• Kenneth Chesebro Memos
• Arizona election "audit" plot emails
• Rick Perry text
• Andy Biggs text
• Jeffrey Clark Memo
• Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon "Green Bay Sweep" seditious conspiracy (The Coup Vote)
• John Eastman Memos
• Johnny McEntee Memo
• Jenna Ellis Memos
• Joseph Schmitz Memo (Jim Jordan Memo)
• Marjorie Taylor Greene text

*****

Military Coup Executive Order Draft (1st draft)

Our worst fears almost came true. Trump almost attempted to fully utilize the military in his coup attempt, as revealed in a draft of an executive order dated December 16, 2020.

This executive order contains 3 major pieces: (1) using the military to seize voting machines, (2) appointing "experts" to "determine" the true outcome of the election, and (3) appointing a special counsel to "investigate" the alleged "crimes" that caused Biden to win the election.

As outlined in the executive order, the fake claims of massive voter fraud would have provided pretext for the military to seize voting machines. Next, the executive order would have given 60 days to "determine" the outcome of the election--which would have illegally kept Trump in power until at least February 2021.

Lastly, the executive order would have appointed a special counsel to "investigate" the 2020 election (i.e. fabricate evidence to support the Big Lie). At a meeting on December 18, 2020, Sidney Powell proposed this very plan and urged Trump to appoint her as the special counsel. The wording of the executive order draft refers to the special counsel as "her", suggesting Powell would have indeed been placed in this role. Recall that we previously reported on this meeting, which also included Flynn (who reportedly pushed for his military coup plot):
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2020/12/trump-considered-military-coup.html

This executive order draft was one of the documents Trump attempted to prevent the January 6th Committee from obtaining--further demonstrating his criminality. Another document he attempted to prevent from coming to light was a speech draft entitled "Remarks on National Healing", which he planned to give to the public after enacting the military coup executive order. The military coup executive order was published for the first time by Politico on January 21, 2022, and can be read in full in the link below.

"I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, find that the forensic report of the Antrim County, Michigan voting machines, released December 14, 2020, and other evidence submitted to me in support of this order, provide probable cause sufficient to require action under the authorities cited above because of evidence of international and foreign interference in the November 4, 2020, election. Dominion Voting Systems and related companies are owned or heavily controlled and influenced by foreign agents, countries, and interests. The forensic report prepared by experts found that "the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results. The system intentionally generates an enormously high number of ballot errors. The intentional errors lead to bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, and no audit trail. This leads to voter or election fraud." The report found the election management system to be wrought with unacceptable and unlawful vulnerabilities––including access to the internet––probable cause to find evidence of fraud, and numerous malicious actions.

[...]

Accordingly, I hereby order:

(1) Effective immediately, the Secretary of Defense shall seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under United States Code Title 42, Sections 1974-1974(e), including but not limited to those identified in footnote 1. The Secretary of Defense has discretion to determine the interdiction of national critical infrastructure supporting federal elections. Designated locations will be identified in the operation order.

(2) Within 7 days of commencement of operations, the initial assessment must be provided to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The final assessment must be provided to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence no later than 60 days from commencement of operations.

(3) The Director of National Intelligence shall deliver this assessment and appropriate supporting information to the President, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security.

[...]

(5) The Secretary of Defense may select by name or by unit federalization of appropriate National Guard support.

[...]

(7) The appointment of a Special Counsel to oversee this operation and institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate based on the evidence collected and provided all resources necessary to carry out her duties consistent with federal laws and the Constitution."

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/21/read-the-never-issued-trump-order-that-would-have-seized-voting-machines-527572

Note that the executive order relies heavily on the Secretary of Defense and Director of National Intelligence. By no coincidence, Trump appointed lackeys in these positions months before the election.

In May 2020, John Ratcliffe was appointed as Director of National Intelligence:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/21/john-ratcliffe-trump-director-of-national-intelligence

On November 9, 2020 (6 days after the election ended), Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and illegally empowered Christopher Miller as "Acting" Secretary of Defense. (Legally, the Deputy Secretary of Defense should have been elevated to this position until Congress could officially confirm a replacement). Recall that this shakeup to pack key departments with cronies in Trump's final days raised grave concerns at the time:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/espers-firing-raises-concerns-trumps-003131189.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/18/pentagon-official-resigns-white-house-nixes-nomination-328552

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-pentagon-trump/after-esper-firing-white-house-moves-trump-loyalists-into-key-pentagon-jobs-idUSKBN27Q3F6

Also, since the executive order is based on lies about voting machines, recall that Dominion and other companies have sued Big Lie supporters and have been doing well in court:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/18/after-lawsuit-against-mypillow-ceo-mike-lindell-heres-who-dominion-and-smartmatic-have-sued-so-far-and-who-could-be-next/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/16/media/fox-news-court-dominion/index.html

"Among the records that Donald Trump’s lawyers tried to shield from Jan. 6 investigators are a draft executive order that would have directed the defense secretary to seize voting machines and a document titled “Remarks on National Healing.”

[...]

It’s not clear who wrote either document. But the draft executive order is dated Dec. 16, 2020, and is consistent with proposals that lawyer Sidney Powell made to the then-president. On Dec. 18, 2020, Powell, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump administration lawyer Emily Newman, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne met with Trump in the Oval Office.

In that meeting, Powell urged Trump to seize voting machines and to appoint her as a special counsel to investigate the election, according to Axios.

[...]

The draft document labeled “Remarks on National Healing,” also now in the select panel’s possession, provides a first look at the remarks Trump would deliver the next day, which stand in jarring contrast to other rhetoric Trump employed at the time and continues to use when discussing the insurrection.

“I would like to begin today by addressing the heinous attack that took place yesterday at the United States Capitol,” it opens. “Like all Americans, I was outraged and sickened by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders. America is, and must always be, a nation of law and order.”

That claim that Trump immediately ordered the National Guard to head to the Capitol may be false. The Jan. 6 select committee sent a letter Thursday saying that Trump’s defense secretary at the time of the riot, Chris Miller, “has testified under oath that the President never contacted him at any time on January 6th, and never, at any time, issued him any order to deploy the National Guard.”

[...]

The remarks departed significantly from the way he described the rioters in other contexts. In a video released during the attack, Trump struck a tone of empathy with the mob.

“We have to have peace,” Trump said then. “So go home. We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel.”"

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/21/read-the-never-issued-trump-order-that-would-have-seized-voting-machines-527572

As mentioned in the Politico article, it appears this executive order was essentially an enactment of the military coup plot that was promoted by Sidney Powell and General Michael Flynn on December 1, 2020. It is modified from the original form, but all signs point to Powell and Flynn as those responsible for influencing the creation of this unambiguously treasonous executive order. A later section covers the military coup plot originally promoted by Flynn, Powell, and others.

Bernie Kerik, a leading member of the Trump legal team, stated that retired Army Colonel Phil Waldron was the originator of the executive order draft itself.

Donald J. Trump. He obviously bears full responsibility for this executive order being drafted, but it was not written by him personally.

Phil Waldron, retired Army Colonel who wrote the executive order drafts which would have used the military to carry out the coup attempt.

Christopher Miller, who was illegally empowered as "Acting" Secretary of Defense. Under his authority the military would illegally seize voting machines, records, and other infrastructure, according to the executive order.

John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence. Under his authority a written "assessment" with fabricated evidence of voter fraud would have been distributed, according to the executive order.

Sidney Powell, a Trump lawyer who would have likely been appointed to the special counsel position created by the executive order, in order to pursue criminal and civil charges against those falsely accused of engaging in fraud. Presumably this reign of terror is what "the kraken" would have been.

***

Military Coup Executive Order Draft (2nd draft)

On January 31, 2022, CNN reported that sources told it a second version of the military coup executive order draft existed. Instead of empowering the Department of Defense to seize the voting machines, this second draft would have empowered the Department of Homeland Security. In a roundabout way, the Department of Homeland Security would then have called on the Department of Defense to call up the National Guard to provide manpower.

On February 5, 2022, CBS News first published a copy of this executive order draft. Titled "Presidential Findings to Seize, Collect, Preserve and Analyze National Security Information Regarding the 2020 General Election" and dated December 17, 2020, it is essentially the same as the first military coup executive order draft.

According to CBS News, Colonel Phil Waldron sent the first executive order draft to General Flynn, and Flynn's response implies Waldron wrote the executive order. Waldron also emailed Trump's inner circle the second draft, which again implies he was the one who wrote the edits. Bernie Kerik, part of Trump's legal team, also stated that Waldron was the author.

"In one email sent the morning of December 17, 2020, retired Army Colonel Phil Waldron wrote to a small group including Bernie Kerik, the lead investigator for Trump's legal team and Rudy Giuliani, the former president's personal attorney: "Final draft finding — includes DHS switch language as well as Foreign interference expansion and warrant issuance language."

Waldron attached to the email the draft order, as well as eight pages of information about Dominion Voting Systems, a voting software company at the center of the conspiracy theories peddled by Giuliani, and Kavtech Solutions, a Pakistan-based firm that has also been mentioned in false claims about the integrity of the election by Waldron.

[...]

The order would have authorized the secretary of Homeland Security to "seize, collect, preserve, protect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention" under a federal law governing the preservation of election records. It also would have given the Department of Homeland Security power to "immediately seek the issuance of any and all search warrants and other warrants or legal powers as may be necessary to carry out and execute this directive."

Under the draft order, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence would have 60 days — into February 2021 — to examine the voting machines and information about the 2020 election. The document would also have empowered the secretary of Homeland Security to "request the Secretary of Defense to provide select personnel/capabilities by name or by unit (federalization of appropriate National Guard assets authorized) in support of a Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA) mission."

[...]

Kerik confirmed to CBS News that the draft orders were circulated by Waldron to members of both Giuliani's legal team and a group led by attorney Sidney Powell as they discussed ways to preserve evidence of supposed fraud.

Another email obtained by CBS News was sent by Waldron to Flynn, among others on December 16, 2020, and included the draft order that would have authorized the Defense Department to seize voting equipment.

In a separate email Flynn sent to Waldron roughly 35 minutes later, Flynn writes: "I reviewed. Fix the spelling error in the title. Ensure it gets a legal review, but this is ready to go from my standpoint. Thanks for getting the key points in."

[...]

Days after the documents were exchanged, Trump held a meeting in the Oval Office on December 18, 2020, that involved Giuliani, Flynn and Powell, during which an idea to seize voting machines was floated, Axios reported at the time.

[...]

Kerik confirmed to CBS News he participated in a mid-December call with Giuliani and Ken Cuccinelli, then-acting deputy Homeland Security secretary, during which Giuliani asked Cuccinelli whether the agency had the authority to seize voting machines. In a follow-up phone call, Giuliani informed Kerik that Cuccinelli said the Department of Homeland Security did not have the power to do so, Kerik said."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/election-2020-voting-machines-draft-executive-order-homeland-security/

Donald J. Trump, who would have needed to sign the executive order for it to have gone into effect.

Phil Waldron, retired Army Colonel who wrote the executive order drafts which would have used the military to carry out the coup attempt.

Michael Flynn, retired Army Lieutenant General. Flynn reviewed Waldron's executive order draft and said it was "ready to go".

Chad Wolf, who was illegally empowered as "Acting" Secretary of Homeland Security. (Despite a court finding that he occupied his position illegally in November 2020, he continued to occupy it until he resigned a week after the Insurrection.) Under his authority voting machines would illegally be seized, according to the executive order.

Christopher Miller, who was illegally empowered as "Acting" Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of Homeland Security would request Miller provide National Guard troops to fulfill the "mission", according to the executive order.

John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence. Under his authority a written "assessment" with fabricated evidence of voter fraud would have been distributed, according to the executive order.

Kenneth Rapuano, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Security. According to the executive order draft, he would "coordinate support requirements as needed from the Department of Defense".

Sidney Powell, a Trump lawyer who would have likely been appointed to the special counsel position created by the executive order, in order to pursue criminal and civil charges against those falsely accused of engaging in fraud. Presumably this reign of terror is what "the kraken" would have been.

***

"We The People Convention" (Tom Zawistowski / Michael Flynn) military coup plot

On December 1, 2020, General Michael Flynn was among the most prominent members of Trump's inner circle to promote a plan by the organization called "We The People Convention" (led by Tom Zawistowski). This plot called for enacting martial law to hold "new" elections (i.e. a military coup).

To my knowledge, it is unclear if Flynn had any role in formulating this treasonous plot. We can only imagine it had his full approval, however, considering that a former GENERAL'S endorsement of a military coup is not something to be taken lightly.

Flynn's promotion of this plot was previously discussed here:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2020/11/mainstream-media-finally-calling-out-trump-coup-attempt.html#FlynnMartialLaw

Trump was previously reported to have actually considered the feasibility of this plan, which we covered here:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2020/12/trump-considered-military-coup.html

As is apparent from the section covering the executive order draft above, the military coup plan was eventually modified and came dangerously close to being put into operation.

Many of the original tweets are now deleted, but here is an article from the time:

"Recently pardoned former National Security Advisor and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Atlanta-based attorney L. Lin Wood joined a growing list of President Donald Trump’s devotees calling for martial law and having the military oversee a new presidential election. Both Flynn and Wood tweeted their support for the effort to undermine the will of the American electorate, with the latter saying a U.S. civil war caused by China was inevitable. Attorneys noted that a former top U.S. intelligence official in Flynn was openly signing his name onto a military coup.

The movement stems from a full-page ad in the Washington Times that was taken out by a prominent Tea Party leader in Ohio who calls his group the We the People Convention (WTPC). The ad erroneously claimed that Democrats “staged a four-year long coup” and illegally stole the election from President Trump, using ahistorical comparisons to actions taken by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.

“Culminating in this corrupt and provably fraudulent current election planned to illegally and unconstitutionally deny the American people their most sacred honor, right and privilege—which is the right to elect their Representatives!” the ad stated. “There is no doubt that this attempted stealing of these elections again ‘is a case of rebellion…in fact, a clear, flagrant, and gigantic case of rebellion’ that requires exercising extraordinary authority to preserve our Union.”

The ad concluded with an ominous threat of violence if Joe Biden’s victory is permitted to stand."

https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/lawyers-condemn-michael-flynn-and-lin-woods-breathtakingly-morally-treasonous-call-for-trump-to-declare-martial-law-and-hold-new-election/

"Who Is Tom Zawistowski, and What Is the We the People Convention?

Zawistowski has been active in Ohio Tea Party circles for years, though “the exact extent of his influence is debatable,” according to Cleveland.com. Zawistowski has served as Portage County Tea Party executive director since 2009 and We the People Convention president since 2011. We the People Convention, which Zawistowski founded, once held actual conventions, but by 2016 it effectively (and at one point legally) ceased to exist as an active Ohio corporation. In 2019, however, Zawistowski refiled the corporation’s business papers and began accepting donations for his radio project."

https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/12/08/limited-martial-law/

Tom Zawistowski.

Michael Flynn, retired Army Lieutenant General, National Security Advisor during Trump's first month in office, registered foreign agent, and military coup advocate.

**

Since Flynn faced no punishment for his crimes, he went on to once again advocate for a military coup once Biden was in office:

https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2021/06/flynn-calls-for-coup-again.html

How many crimes will he be allowed to commit before finally facing consequences?

***

Donald Trump Jr. Memo

On November 5, 2020--two days after the 2020 election ended, but while votes were still being counted--Donald Trump Jr. texted Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows a multi-pronged strategy to ensure Trump would obtain a second term, regardless of what the outcome of the election was.

The strategies outlined by Trump Jr. include most of the major steps Republicans actually attempted--including sending fake electors to the Electoral College.

Most critically, Trump Jr.'s texts reveal that all of the major schemes to overthrow the election had already been developed prior to the election. They were ready to go even before Trump had lost.

This should not be surprising, considering Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was brought in to sabotage the Postal Service in order to rig mail-in voting prior to the election. The media has really dropped the ball by ignoring DeJoy and how the coup attempt began long before January 6th. (By the way, DeJoy is STILL Postmaster General under Biden, despite his crimes!)

Back to Trump Jr. His text messages were first reported by CNN on April 8, 2022. His lawyer claimed he was "merely" forwarding messages received from others, but, by collecting all of this information and giving it his official seal of approval, we can see that Trump Jr. played a very critical role in mobilizing the Republican Party to carry out these plans.

"'We control them all': Donald Trump Jr. texted Meadows ideas for overturning 2020 election before it was called

Two days after the 2020 presidential election, as votes were still being tallied, Donald Trump's eldest son texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows that "we have operational control" to ensure his father would get a second term, with Republican majorities in the US Senate and swing state legislatures, CNN has learned.

In the text, which has not been previously reported, Donald Trump Jr. lays out ideas for keeping his father in power by subverting the Electoral College process, according to the message reviewed by CNN. The text is among records obtained by the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021.

"It's very simple," Trump Jr. texted to Meadows on November 5, adding later in the same missive: "We have multiple paths We control them all."

In a statement to CNN, Trump Jr.'s lawyer Alan S. Futerfas said, "After the election, Don received numerous messages from supporters and others. Given the date, this message likely originated from someone else and was forwarded."

Immediately before his text to Meadows describing multiple paths for challenging the election, Trump Jr. texted Meadows the following: "This is what we need to do please read it and please get it to everyone that needs to see it because I'm not sure we're doing it."

The November 5 text message outlines a strategy that is nearly identical to what allies of the former President attempted to carry out in the months that followed. Trump Jr. makes specific reference to filing lawsuits and advocating recounts to prevent certain swing states from certifying their results, as well as having a handful of Republican state houses put forward slates of fake "Trump electors."

If all that failed, according to the Trump Jr. text, GOP lawmakers in Congress could simply vote to reinstall Trump as President on January 6.

"We have operational control Total leverage," the message reads. "Moral High Ground POTUS must start 2nd term now."

The text from Trump Jr. is revealing on a number of levels. It shows how those closest to the former President were already exchanging ideas for how to overturn the election months before the January 6 insurrection -- and before all the votes were even counted. It would be another two days before major news outlets declared Joe Biden the winner on November 7.

The text also adds to a growing body of evidence of how Trump's inner circle was actively engaged in discussing how to challenge the election results.

[...]

Specifically, Trump Jr. previews a strategy to supplant authentic electors with fake Republican electors in a handful of states. That plan was eventually orchestrated and carried out by allies of the former President, and overseen by his then-attorney Rudy Giuliani.

[...]

The Justice Department and the House committee are both investigating the fake electors plot within the context of what unfolded on January 6 and Trump's broader effort to overturn the election.

The strategy floated by Trump Jr. is similar to what was outlined by former Texas Governor and Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who texted Meadows on November 4 suggesting three state legislatures ignore the will of their voters and deliver their states' electors to Trump.

[...]

Trump Jr. ends his November 5 text by calling for a litany of personnel moves to solidify his father's control over the government by putting loyalists in key jobs and initiate investigations into the Biden family.

"Fire Wray; Fire Fauci," he texts, referring to FBI Director Christopher Wray and White House coronavirus adviser Anthony Fauci. Trump Jr. then proposes making former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell interim head of the FBI and having then-Attorney General Bill Barr "select Special prosecutor on HardDrivefromHell Biden crime family."

As Trump refused to concede in the days and weeks after the 2020 election, rumors swirled that he was still considering firing Wray, along with several other top officials with whom he had grown frustrated."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/08/politics/donald-trump-jr-meadows-text/index.html

Donald Trump Jr.

Mark Meadows, Trump's Chief of Staff who apparently did nothing to prevent the coup plots from circulating and gaining traction among Trump's inner circle.

***

Phil Waldron Coup Powerpoint

The memo that seems to have captured some of the greatest media attention is the 38-slide coup powerpoint. Suggestions included in this powerpoint were actually acted upon by Republicans, which makes it all the more chilling. The powerpoint is clear evidence that all of the ideas expressed in the different coup memos were circulating among Trump's inner circle of cronies.

On December 8, 2021, it was reported Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows turned over a powerpoint to the January 6th Select Committee. This powerpoint is dated as January 5th, 2021, and contains 38 slides detailing coup strategies surrounding the "recounting" of ballots in order to throw out enough Biden votes to flip the election.

The powerpoint was titled "Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN". Subsequent reporting revealed the powerpoint was authored by retired Colonel Phil Waldron.

One of the first reports on this powerpoint was from reporter Hugo Lowell:
https://twitter.com/hugolowell/status/1468593905381912581

The full powerpoint is linked below:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210716135230if_/https://www.ingersolllockwood.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/voter-fraud.pdf

This powerpoint pushes the lie that there was massive voter fraud which cost Trump the election (directed by China and Venezuela for some reason) and outlines far-right conspiracies which became common, such as vote totals being manipulated on TV during the counting, votes being "shifted" to the other party by voting machines, and the allegation that Dominion voting machines were being directly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. These Big Lies were to be promoted to the public to make them believe a "recount" was warranted.

Slide 23 contains an overview of the "Recommendations" for Trump to steal victory:

▪ Brief Senators and Congressmen on foreign interference
▪ Declare National Security Emergency
▪ Foreign influence and control of electronic voting systems
▪ Declare electronic voting in all states invalid
▪ LEGAL & Genuine Paper ballot counts or Constitutional remedy delegated to Congress

This would be contingent upon Pence delaying "the decision [to count the electoral votes] in order to allow for a vetting and subsequent counting of the all the legal paper ballots" (slide 34).

Slide 25 recommends the immediate disqualification of all mail-in ballots and other ballots cast electronically, as well as Republicans having control over a hand count of ballots to ensure that the outcome of the races change.

▪ Regardless of the cheating and stuffing of the ballot box, by eliminating the counterfeit mail-in and absentee ballots -> Trump Almost Certainly Wins
   ▪ Additionally, US Senators, US House Races, State, and Local races now turn to Republican
   ▪ This remedies the problem quickly and easily by:
      ▪ Eliminating counterfeit ballots and subtracting them from current totals to see if races change, or
      ▪ Recounting remaining, legal ballots by hand to see who wins races.
      ▪ Either way, we quickly and easily find out who the elected leaders REALLY ARE and restore confidence in the outcome!

Slide 31 declares there must be a nationwide recount. This slide says: "Counterfeit ballots can easily and quickly be identified using technology similar to that used by Treasury to find counterfeit currency."

Now we know why the total sham of a recount in Arizona (which was conducted by an unqualified private company with minimal transparency) were so obsessed with finding "bamboo fibers" in fake Chinese-produced ballots. Indeed, Waldron himself was the architect of the Arizona recount.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/arizonas-cyber-ninjas-usher-in-new-era-of-insane-ballot-attacks

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/cyber-ninjas-are-now-in-stealth-mode-what-dont-they-want-us-to-know/ar-AAOE3bo

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/06/arizona-republicans-bamboo-ballots-audit-2020

(Although to be fair to them, they seemed to have accurately counted all the ballots!)

"According to the New York Times, which viewed the draft, the Cyber Ninjas found 261 fewer votes from Donald Trump and 99 more for President Joe Biden. (Biden has been our nation’s president for eight months.)"

https://gizmodo.com/thanks-cyber-ninjas-1847738279

Slide 32 says that the federal government will seize the ballots in all 50 states, Trump will appointed a "Trusted Lead Counter" to oversee the federalized National Guard, who will be responsible for counting each ballot.

This is one of the key points of the military coup executive order draft.

▪ A Trusted Lead Counter will be appointed with authority from the POTUS to direct the actions of select federalized National Guard units and support from DOJ, DHS and other US government agencies as needed to complete a recount of the legal paper ballots for the federal elections in all 50 states.

▪ US Marshals will immediately secure all ballots and provide a protective perimeter around the locations in all 50 states.

▪ DHS will use their emergency response logistic capabilities to support the effort. They will integrate the IT support that will include separating out the legal from the counterfeit ballots and communications with all supporting the effort and cameras (Possibly cell phones) imaging each and every ballot. These images will be distributed to the Internet.

▪ The federalized National Guard in each state will be supplied detailed processes and be responsible for counting each legitimate paper ballot. Teams made up of three (first couple counties will be five) National Guard members will do the counting. As the counting occurs each ballot will be imaged and the images placed on the Internet so any US citizen can view them and count the ballots themselves. The process will be completely transparent.

Slide 33:

The legality of each ballot will be determined based on the Constitution and therefore the laws enacted by the state legislatures and in effect at time of the election. Exceptions will require an affirmative vote by the SCOTUS stating that Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 has been suspended. Otherwise all officials will follow the Constitution.

Now we know why the Supreme Court was packed with Amy Coney Barrett after 60 million Americans had already voted, only 35 days before the end of the 2020 election. No doubt the hypocrisy of appointing a judge during such a time was preparation for a potential Supreme Court challenge over the election.

In 2000, the Supreme Court handed the election to George W. Bush, despite Florida not finishing with its recount in Florida. A number of subsequent analyses have shown that Al Gore actually had more votes than Bush in Florida. What's more, Roger Stone, who spearheaded the "Stop the Steal" movement surrounding the 2020 election, was one of the agents responsible for successfully disrupting the 2000 recount long enough for Bush to retain a lead...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_presidential_election_recount_in_Florida#Post-election_studies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks_Brothers_riot

The rest of slide 33 is comparable to what happened during the Arizona recount, although it was conducted by an unqualified private company instead of a "reputable" government agency and conducted with minimal transparency.

Slide 34 briefly goes over points for Pence's role in carrying out the coup during the counting of electoral votes. One of Pence's options is to delay the counting long enough for a recount to take place (5-10 days in the powerpoint's estimation). The other two options listed for Pence are reiterated in more detail in John Eastman's memo.

Slide 35 is a concluding image captioned: "The 2020 US Election. Made in China?" This demonstrates the importance of whipping up a Big Lie narrative to create the pretext to "recount" the votes.

**

Although Waldron went under the radar during Trump's time in office, he was in fact an important member of Trump's inner circle of coup organizers and was present during the Willard Hotel meeting on November 5, 2020. This meeting came days after it was clear Trump had lost the election, and Trump's inner circle began scheming of ways to overthrow the results. Eastman, Giuliani, Bannon, Jenna Ellis (see below), and around 10-20 other coup schemers--including Waldron--were present at this meeting.

"Nothing is more important than Team Trump’s January PowerPoint urging a full-blown coup

[...]

The Washington Post reported Saturday that the originator of the PowerPoint plan appears to be a Texas-based retired Army colonel (who, interestingly, specialized in psyops) named Phil Waldron, who’d managed to first get his ideas and then himself woven into Trump’s inner circle, including a close relationship with the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani."

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/trump-powerpoint-january-6-coup-20211212.html

"But subsequent reporting from my colleagues Emma Brown, Jon Swaine, Jacqueline Alemany, Josh Dawsey and Tom Hamburger, published on Saturday, showed the scheme apparently reached deep inside 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

“A retired U.S. Army colonel who circulated a proposal to challenge the 2020 election, including by declaring a national security emergency and seizing paper ballots, said that he visited the White House on multiple occasions after the election, spoke with President Donald Trump’s chief of staff ‘maybe eight to 10 times’ and briefed several members of Congress on the eve of the Jan. 6 riot,” they reported.

“Phil Waldron, the retired colonel, was working with Trump’s outside lawyers and was part of a team that briefed the lawmakers on a PowerPoint presentation detailing ‘Options for 6 JAN,’ Waldron told The Washington Post. He said his contribution to the presentation focused on his claims of foreign interference in the vote, as did his discussions with the White House.”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/14/meadows-texts-weird-powerpoint-take-jan-6-inside-white-house/

Phil Waldron, retired Army Colonel and coup promoter.

***

Ginni Thomas texts (and Gitmo military tribunal plot)

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, has been a far-right activist for many decades. Dustin Stockton, an organizer of one of the pro-Trump rallies that took place on January 6th, said Ginni Thomas played a key role in coordinating various factions of rally organizers to ensure they were a united front on January 6th.

"Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, played a peacemaking role among rally organizers "so that there wouldn't be any division around January 6," Dustin Stockton, who helped organize the Ellipse rally, told The Times.

[...]

"The way it was presented to me was that Ginni was uniting these different factions around a singular mission on January 6," Stockton said. The Times noted that other rally organizers disputed Stockton's account about Thomas but did not offer specifics."

https://www.businessinsider.com/clarence-thomas-wife-ginni-linked-january-6-rally-overturn-election-2022-2

Beyond this, she texted Mark Meadows, constantly urging him to keep pursuing the coup attempt. In the most outrageous of these texts, on November 5 (two days after the elected ended) Ginni Thomas appeared to promote a plan for Biden and all politicians and journalists who did not support the Big Lie to be immediately arrested, face a military tribunal, and be sent to be tortured at Guantanamo Bay.

The fact that the wife of a SUPREME COURT JUDGE would think it's ok to transmit such a coup plan is insane.

These text messages were part of the information Mark Meadows handed over to the January 6th Committee, and Thomas's texts were first published by the Washington Post on March 24, 2022.

"Virginia Thomas urged White House chief to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 election, texts show

In messages to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the weeks after Election Day, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called Biden’s victory ‘the greatest Heist of our History’ and told him that President Donald Trump should not concede

[...]

The messages — 29 in all — reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.

On Nov. 10, after news organizations had projected Joe Biden the winner based on state vote totals, Thomas wrote to Meadows: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!...You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

When Meadows wrote to Thomas on Nov. 24, the White House chief of staff invoked God to describe the effort to overturn the election. “This is a fight of good versus evil,” Meadows wrote. “Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.”

[...]

The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump’s inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president’s strategy to overturn the election results — and how receptive and grateful Meadows said he was to receive her advice. Among Thomas’s stated goals in the messages was for lawyer Sidney Powell, who promoted incendiary and unsupported claims about the election, to be “the lead and the face” of Trump’s legal team.

[...]

In the Nov. 5 message to Meadows, Thomas went on to quote a passage that had circulated on right-wing websites: “Biden crime family & ballot fraud co-conspirators (elected officials, bureaucrats, social media censorship mongers, fake stream media reporters, etc) are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud right now & over coming days, & will be living in barges off GITMO to face military tribunals for sedition.”

The text messages received by the House select committee do not include a response from Meadows.

The next day, Nov. 6, Thomas sent a follow-up to Meadows: “Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back.”

[...]

On Nov. 10 [...] Thomas then turned to her frustrations with congressional Republicans and said she wished more of them were rallying behind Trump and being more active with his base voters, who were furious about the election.

She wrote, “House and Senate guys are pathetic too... only 4 GOP House members seen out in street rallies with grassroots... Gohmert, Jordan, Gosar, and Roy.”

[...]

“Where the heck are all those who benefited by Presidents coattails?!!!” she wrote in her text message to him late on Nov. 10. She then told him to watch a YouTube video about the power of never conceding.

Meadows might not have been Thomas’s only contact inside the Trump White House that week. On Nov. 13, she texted Meadows about her outreach to “Jared,” potentially a reference to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser. She wrote, “Just forwarded to yr gmail an email I sent Jared this am. Sidney Powell & improved coordination now will help the cavalry come and Fraud exposed and America saved.” The messages provided to the House select committee do not show a response by Meadows.

[...]

On Nov. 19, which would be a crucial day for Powell as she spoke at a news conference at the Republican National Committee, Thomas continued to bolster Powell’s standing in a text to Meadows.

“Mark (don’t want to wake you)… ” Thomas wrote. “Sounds like Sidney and her team are getting inundated with evidence of fraud. Make a plan. Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.”

[...]

On Nov. 24 [...] Meadows replied three minutes later: “I don’t know what you mean by caving to the elites.”

Thomas responded: “I can’t see Americans swallowing the obvious fraud. Just going with one more thing with no frickin consequences... the whole coup and now this... we just cave to people wanting Biden to be anointed? Many of us can’t continue the GOP charade.”

[...]

The text exchanges with Thomas that Meadows provided to the House select committee pause after Nov. 24, 2020, with an unexplained gap in correspondence. The committee received one additional message sent by Thomas to Meadows, on Jan. 10, four days after the “Stop the Steal” rally Thomas said she attended and the deadly attack on the Capitol.

In that message, Thomas expresses support for Meadows and Trump — and directed anger at Vice President Mike Pence, who had refused Trump’s wishes to block the congressional certification of Biden’s electoral college victory.

“We are living through what feels like the end of America,” Thomas wrote to Meadows. “Most of us are disgusted with the VP and are in listening mode to see where to fight with our teams. Those who attacked the Capitol are not representative of our great teams of patriots for DJT!!”

“Amazing times,” she added. “The end of Liberty.”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/24/virginia-thomas-mark-meadows-texts/

In the texts, Ginni mentioned that a conversation with her "best friend" helped to keep her morale high. In the context of these texts, we can only assume that means her best friend was able to reassure her that it was still possible for the coup to succeed. It is likely that her "best friend" refers to none other than her husband, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas.

Not surprisingly, Clarence Thomas was the only Supreme Court judge who voted to block Congress from accessing certain messages regarding the coup attempt.

"Justice Clarence Thomas voted to block the public from knowing more about his wife Virginia Thomas’ role in the January insurrection — it’s a crisis

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Jan. 19, 2022, order in Trump v. Thompson was as brief as it was significant. By a vote of 8-1, with Justice Clarence Thomas as the lone dissenter, the court refused a request by former President Donald Trump to block congressional investigators from gaining access to messages that Trump claimed were still covered by executive privilege. Those messages, between and among Trump administration officials during their final days in office, shed needed light on the origins of the Trump-fueled U.S. Capitol riot and insurrection, which had taken place one year earlier in Washington, D.C.

[...]

Thomas dissented, though he didn’t say why. We know, however, thanks to an extraordinary story that broke Thursday, that Virginia Thomas was relentlessly texting Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows from November 2020 until the date of the Capitol riot, urging Meadows and others to pursue baseless election-fraud charges and other stunts to try to overturn the results of Biden’s presidential victory. At one point, Virginia Thomas appeared to reference her husband, the sitting Supreme Court justice, making both of them potential fact witnesses in a case and a cause that may end up back before the justices before too long.

[...]

You don’t need to be a legal expert to know that one spouse shouldn’t sit in judgment in a case in which the other spouse is a witness — or a suspect."

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/supreme-court-clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas-texts-1327064/

Ginni Thomas, far-right activist and organizer, and wife of Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas. She saw no problem encouraging Mark Meadows to arrest Biden, politicians who did not support the Big Lie, and journalists, in order to torture them in Guantanamo Bay.

Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas. In her texts, Ginni Thomas referred to him as her "best friend" who apparently supported the coup attempt. Clarence Thomas was the only member of the Supreme Court to vote to block Congress from receiving certain coup-related text messages (which included those his wife sent).

***

Kenneth Chesebro Memos

Lawyer Kenneth Chesebro seems to have written at least three different memos.

On November 18, 2020, he sent Trump campaign lawyer James R. Troupis a memo arguing January 6th (when Congress takes the final ceremonial step of counting the electoral votes) was the final date for settling the election, not the December 8th deadline the states had to certify their electoral votes.

Chesebro sent another memo to Troupis on December 9, 2020, arguing in support of the criminal "alternate electors" scheme. In particular, Chesebro notes that the "most straightforward" state to change the electoral outcome in is Arizona. (Again, note the extreme lengths Republicans went through to attempt to do the "recount" in Arizona. Although they failed this time, they will no doubt use this as a dry run for future coup attempts).

These two memos were first obtained by the organization American Oversight on February 1, 2022. The New York Times reported on them on February 2, 2022.

"Fifteen days after Election Day in 2020, James R. Troupis, a lawyer for the Trump campaign in Wisconsin, received a memo setting out what became the rationale for an audacious strategy: to put in place alternate slates of electors in states where President Donald J. Trump was trying to overturn his loss.

The memo, from another lawyer named Kenneth Chesebro, may not have been the first time that lawyers and allies of Mr. Trump had weighed the possibility of naming their own electors in the hopes that they might eventually succeed in flipping the outcome in battleground states through recounts and lawsuits baselessly asserting widespread fraud.

But the Nov. 18 memo and another three weeks later are among the earliest known efforts to put on paper proposals for preparing alternate electors. They helped to shape a crucial strategy that Mr. Trump would embrace with profound consequences for himself and the nation.

[...]

Both federal prosecutors and the House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6 have recently confirmed that they are examining the effort to submit alternate slates of electors to the Electoral College. On Friday, congressional investigators issued subpoenas to 14 people who claimed to be official Trump electors in states that were actually won by Mr. Biden.

The two memos, obtained by The New York Times, were used by Mr. Trump’s top lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, and others like John Eastman as they developed a strategy intended to exploit ambiguities in the Electoral Count Act, according to a person familiar with the matter.

[...]

The memos were initially meant to address Mr. Trump’s challenge to the outcome in Wisconsin, but they ultimately became part of a broader conversation by members of Mr. Trump’s legal team as the president looked toward Jan. 6 and began to exert pressure on Mr. Pence to hold up certification of the Electoral College count."

https://web.archive.org/web/20220412201358/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-memos.html

The 7-page November 18, 2020 memo can be read here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220330063708/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/02/us/trump-electors-memo-november.html

The 5-page December 9, 2020 memo can be read here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220427032626/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/02/us/trump-electors-memo-december.html

**

On December 19, 2020, Chesebro sent Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani a memo which he called the "'President of the Senate' strategy". This strategy would involve Vice President Pence stepping aside from his role in counting the electoral votes and allowing someone else to take his place. Senator Chuck Grassley had eagerly announced how he was ready to take over if Pence got cold feet or was kidnapped by his bodyguards--showing he was informed of, and ready to implement, this plan. The fake electors scheme (headed by Giuliani and previously discussed in Chesebro's earlier memos) would be a particularly important aspect for this plan to succeed.

This memo was released as part of court records on May 26, 2022, and reported by the media around June 1, 2022. This memo is particularly significant, because it was handed over to the January 6th Select Committee by a federal judge who ruled it was "likely" evidence of a criminal conspiracy.

"Read the Trump-world legal memo that a judge ruled was likely part of a criminal effort to overturn the election.

[...]

Chesebro's memo became public last week as a little-noticed exhibit in a legal battle between the Jan. 6 select committee and John Eastman, who conferred with Chesebro about that last-ditch strategy to delay or prevent the certification of Biden’s election. U.S. District Court Judge David Carter described the memo in his March ruling as perhaps “the first time members of President Trump’s team transformed a legal interpretation of the Electoral Count Act” — the law that governs the transition of power — into a day-by-day plan of action.” Carter wrote in his opinion that this memo “likely furthered the crimes of obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.” He ordered it released to the select committee under the "crime-fraud" exception to attorney client privilege.

The strategy: The plan offered by Chesebro depended on the existence of competing slates of presidential electors in a handful of states where Biden won the popular vote. In fact, just a day after Chesebro sent his memo to Giuliani, pro-Trump activists gathered in several state capitals and signed documents falsely claiming to be the true presidential electors from their states."

https://www.politico.com/minutes/congress/06-1-2022/jan-6-strategy-memo/

Chesebro's 4-page "President of the Senate" memo can be read below:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840/gov.uscourts.cacd.841840.350.2.pdf

From the memo:

"At this point, the Vice President will have emphasized the need for focus on plain language and adherence to the Constitution, by rejecting the role of presiding officer imposed by the Electoral Count Act. He will also have made clear that he and the President are not going to be involved in counting the votes concerning their own election, which is why he feels bound to recuse himself on conflict-of-interest grounds, just as a Democrat did previously.

Of course, politically this will insulate him and the President from what will happen next. For it is much easier for someone acting as President of the Senate to defend the prerogatives of the office if he has no conflict of interest (other than, of course, a partisan interest, which is unavoidable).

In the absence of the Vice President, the president pro tempore acts as the President of the Senate, and thus is the one with the sole power and responsibility to play that role in the joint session. So regardless of whether it is Chuck Grassley or another senior Republican who agrees to take on the role of defending the constitutional prerogatives of the President of the Senate, whoever it is then proceeds to open and count first Alabama, and then Alaska, at which point Trump and Pence are leading 12-0.

He then opens the two envelopes from Arizona, and announces that he cannot and will not, at least as of that date, count any electoral votes from Arizona because there are two slates of votes, and it is clear that the Arizona courts did not give a full and fair opportunity for review of election irregularities, in violation of due process.

[...]

After Jan. 6

Lots of lawyers and political strategists connected to the campaign can wargame much better than me what would then happen, but if the President of the Senate stuck to his guns, absent him being impeached and removed from office, the fact that he is the only one permitted to even OPEN the votes could give him enormous leverage.

[...]

What the Supreme Court would do is anyone's guess, but I would not bet on a majority of the Court siding with the President of the Senate

[...]

If Biden were to win in the Court, much will still have been accomplished, in riveting public attention on election abuses, and building momentum to prevent similar abuses in the future.

[...]

If the Court were to dodge, then we would have a situation similar to 1877, in which the parties would realize that if they remained at loggerheads, with the President of the Senate perhaps refusing to open the votes of the contested states as long as his authority to count the votes was being challenged, and Pelosi refusing to hold an election for president in the House, and with January 20 looming, political leaders would face a choice. Either Pelosi would become acting president on January 20 (after resigning as Speaker) or the Senate would reelect Pence as Vice President, who would then become acting president on Jan. 20.

[...]

... it doesn't seem fanciful to think that Trump and Pence would end up winning the vote after some legislatures appoint electors, or that there might be a negotiated solution in which the Senate elects Pence Vice President, and Trump agrees to drop his bid to be elected in the House, so that Biden and Harris are defeated, even though Trump isn't reelected."

Even in private, they had the nerve to act like a majority of their party working together to carry out a coup attempt wasn't a massive conflict of interest?

Note also how Chesebro says they will be able to "prevent similar abuses in the future"--i.e. the will attempt more coups in the future.

This country is doomed unless the coup organizers are promptly put in prison.

[]

Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who boasts about handling "more than 100 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and lower courts", according to his LinkedIn page. Even with his knowledge of US federal law, he thought it was a great idea to write multiple coup memos.

James R. Troupis, Trump campaign lawyer who led the campaign's recount effort and court challenges in Wisconsin. Chesebro emailed Troupis his memos outlining the fake elector plot.

Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer who led the fake elector plot. Chesebro emailed him his "President of the Senate" memo.

Chuck Grassley, president pro tempore of the Senate during the Trump administration. Although Grassley did not vote to overthrow the election, he was prepared to take over Pence's role to implement the coup.

John Eastman, a lawyer who most infamously developed coup memos outlining the Vice President's role in the coup. Chesebro had sent Eastman his memos, and court investigations into documents held by Eastman revealed Chesebro's December 19th memo.

***

Arizona election "audit" plot emails

On January 23, 2022, Rolling Stone published 430 pages of emails sent in December 2020 from Trump orbiters who planned to "audit" and overturn the results of the election in Arizona. The key figure in this plot was Colonel Phil Waldron.

The emails were obtained by the organization American Oversight, and their article gives a succinct overview. I recommend reading the full article.

"Documents obtained by American Oversight and reported on by Rolling Stone reveal that in early December 2020, election-denying activists pushed Arizona state legislators to use untested technology to scan and toss out “invalid” ballots, thus handing the state’s electoral votes to then-President Donald Trump.

The emails, sent days before members of the Electoral College were set to cast their votes for president, also included members of Trump’s legal and campaign team and appear to be a precursor to the discredited “audit” of Maricopa County ballots that the Arizona Senate would later launch. Many of the emails were sent by Phil Waldron, the retired Army colonel who shared a PowerPoint outlining measures for overturning the 2020 election results with Trump allies and congressional offices in the days before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Text messages previously uncovered by American Oversight indicated that Senate President Karen Fann had consulted with Waldron prior to hiring the inexperienced firm Cyber Ninjas to conduct the “audit.”"

https://www.americanoversight.org/december-2020-emails-to-arizona-lawmakers-reveal-election-deniers-plans-for-scanning-and-throwing-out-invalid-ballots

"But while the Trump campaign knew about this plotting, it was the obscure investigators and researchers, the emails show, who made the case directly to Arizona legislators about how to find supposed fraud and potentially use that evidence to challenge the outcome. Those outside investigators remain active in the growing movement to find fraud in the 2020 election. What’s more, one state lawmaker included on the emails, Mark Finchem, is now running for secretary of state in Arizona. If Finchem wins, he would oversee Arizona’s elections.

[...]

In one email, on Dec. 8, Waldron sent some of his team’s research to Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem. A diehard Trump supporter and onetime member of the Oath Keepers militia, Finchem had amplified fraud claims during the 2020 campaign. Waldron included Trump aides Ellis and Kerik on that email. He also added what appears to be an email address for another Trump legal team volunteer who has received less scrutiny, a lawyer and one-time lobbyist named Katherine Friess.

[...]

Yet another person on Waldron’s Dec. 8 email was Russ Ramsland, a self-appointed election sleuth who has spread multiple election-related conspiracy theories and made fraud allegations that were later debunked.

[...]

That same day, Waldron wrote to Arizona state Sen. Sonny Borrelli, a Republican. “We have the capability to identify fraudulent ballots via optical scanning technology,” Waldron wrote. The gist of his plan, Waldron wrote, was this: “This will allow us to pull invalid votes out of the totals ‘By Candidate’ so that your state can certify normal elections and potentially not have to take extra legislative action.”

Sen. Borrelli forwarded this message to every Republican in the Arizona Senate, emails show.

[...]

A few days after receiving Waldron’s Dec. 11 email, Sen. Farnsworth announced he planned to subpoena information about Maricopa County’s software and hardware provided by Dominion. He said too many questions had been raised about the integrity of Arizona’s election, and the investigation was a way to “try and see if we can reinsert some confidence in our election process.”

Sen. Borrelli, another recipient of Waldron’s emails, said the operating manual for Dominion’s equipment laid out how “data can be changed and votes switched around,” adding, “Nothing’s 100 percent secure. If people want to cheat they’re going to cheat.” (Farnsworth and Borrelli did not respond to requests for comment.)

The Arizona Senate would go on to order a hand-counted audit of more than 2 million ballots cast in Maricopa County in 2020. That supposed audit violated multiple best practices and procedures for handling ballots, cost millions of dollars, and reaffirmed Biden’s victory. Still, election-law experts say no matter the audit’s outcome, it also served to further undermine trust in the last election and supply a pretext for legal and legislative changes in the future."

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/maga-emails-arizona-trump-2020-election-1287447/

Retired Army Colonel Phil Waldron, architect of the effort to overturn the election result in Arizona.

Other key figures who appear in the emails:

Jenna Ellis, Trump team lawyer who wrote her own memos on how Pence could overthrow the election.

Mark Finchem, Arizona state representative who is running for secretary of state of Arizona (where he would oversee elections), which would allow him to orchestrate future coup attempts.

Sonny Borrelli, Arizona state senator who transmitted Waldron's plan to every Republican in the Arizona state senate.

[]

Katherine Friess, part of the Trump legal team who wrote a document falsely accusing voting machine manufacturers of participating in election fraud.

Eddie Farnsworth, Arizona state senator who chaired the judiciary committee, who announced he was subpoenaing information about Dominion voting machines, based on Waldron's "evidence".

Russ Ramsland, who spread propaganda about election machines and non-existent election fraud.

***

Rick Perry text

On November 4, 2020, former Texas Governor and Trump head of the Department of Energy Rick Perry sent a memo to Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows outlining an "AGRESSIVE STRATEGY" of how Republican-controlled state legislatures could invalidate the legal electoral votes and simply appoint their own pro-Trump electors. The text was uncovered by the January 6th Select Committee, and this text was first reported by CNN on December 17, 2021.

"CNN Exclusive: Jan 6 investigators believe Nov. 4 text pushing 'strategy' to undermine election came from Rick Perry

[...]

Members of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol believe that former Texas Governor and Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry was the author of a text message sent to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows the day after the 2020 election pushing an "AGRESSIVE (sic) STRATEGY" for three state legislatures to ignore the will of their voters and deliver their states' electors to Donald Trump, three sources familiar with the House Committee investigation tell CNN.

[...]

The Nov. 4, 2020, text message from Perry's phone garnered a great deal of attention this week; it was included in a tranche of roughly 6,000 documents Meadows turned over to the House Select Committee."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/17/politics/rick-perry-jan-6-text-mark-meadows-nov-4/index.html

"But it's actually a text sent from a number CNN has reported is associated with and registered to former Trump Energy Secretary Rick Perry -- on November 4 -- that truly speaks to the lengths many within the Republican party were willing to go to keep Joe Biden from being elected. (Perry, through a spokesman, denies he sent the text.)

Here's the text:

"Here's an aggressive strategy: Why can t [sic] the states of GA NC PENN and other R controlled state houses declare this is BS (where conflicts and election not called that night) and just send their own electors to vote and have it go to the SCOTUS."

Just to be totally clear, here is what was being proposed the day after the election: In any state that had not yet been called for Biden or Trump and/or any state where there were "conflicts" where Republicans controlled the state legislature, they should simply declare the election moot and send their own preferred electors instead."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/20/politics/rick-perry-text-mark-meadows-election/index.html

Rick Perry's devotion to Trump makes it clear he desired for the total overthrow of our government.

November 25, 2019:

"Outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry says he told the president recently that he was the "chosen one" sent to accomplish God's plan. Perry recalled the conversation in an interview aired partially on "Fox and Friends" over the weekend.

"God's used imperfect people all through history. King David wasn't perfect. Saul wasn't perfect. Solomon wasn't perfect. And I actually gave the president a little one-pager on those Old Testament kings about a month ago," Perry said in the clip played over the weekend, referencing biblical kings who were accused of everything from adultery to ordering murders.

"And I shared it with him, I said, 'Mr. President, I know there are people that say you know you said you were the chosen one.' And I said, 'you were.' I said, if you're a believing Christian you understand God's plan for the people who rule and judge over us on this planet in our government."

[...]

Perry becomes just the latest to point to Mr. Trump as divinely chosen. Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders drew headlines in January when she said God "wanted" Mr. Trump to be president."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/rick-perry-told-trump-he-was-chosen-by-god/

Rick Perry.

***

Andy Biggs text

On April 25, 2022, CNN reported that it had obtained 2,319 text messages that Mark Meadows had turned over to the January 6th Committee. Among those messages was a text from Representative Andy Biggs, who voiced his support for the plot for Republican-controlled state legislatures to sabotage the election results.

It seems clear that Biggs was not the one who developed this strategy (Rick Perry texted Meadows this strategy two days prior--see above). However, by transmitting this information and his support for it, Biggs's text is a coup memo nevertheless.

"November 6, 2020

Rep. Andy Biggs to Mark Meadows
I'm sure you have heard of this proposal. It is to encourage the state legislatures to appoint a look doors in the various states where there's been shenanigans. If I understand right most of those states have Republican Legislature's. It seems to be comport with glorified Bush as well as the Constitution. And, well highly controversial, it can't be much more controversial than the lunacy that were sitting out there now. And It would be pretty difficult because he would take governors and legislators with collective will and backbone to do that. Is anybody on the team researching and considering lobbying for that?

Mark Meadows to Rep. Andy Biggs
I love it."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/25/politics/read-mark-meadows-texts-sean-hannity-ivanka-trump-marjorie-taylor-greene/index.html

Only days after the Insurrection, Biggs was implicated as having worked with Insurrection organizer Ali Alexander to help coordinate the events of January 6th. Although Biggs has denied this, Alexander reaffirmed his collaboration with Biggs to the January 6th Committee a few months ago.

With this additional context of Biggs's important role in the coup attempt, it makes his borderline-illiterate text message look a bit more serious.

Andy Biggs, who has illegally been serving in Congress since January 6th, 2021.

Mark Meadows, Trump's Chief of Staff who told Biggs he loved the coup plot.

***

Jeffrey Clark Memo

Justice Department Civil Division head Jeffrey Clark's role in the coup attempt was revealed back on August 3, 2021, and many news articles at the time confusingly declared that his actions were a separate coup attempt for some reason. I probably expressed how nonsensical (and lacking in journalistic integrity) such a description was in a previous blog post.

As the January 6th Select Committee has been unearthing information, it seems that journalists have been better able to contextualize how all of the strategies to overthrow the 2020 Election were merely different acts of the same coup attempt.

"Then came the attempt to wield the power of the Justice Department to attack Georgia's election results. For this mission, someone cranked up Jeffrey Clark, a relative unknown who was acting chief of the Department's Civil Division as a result of pre-election DOJ vacancies. Clark prepared a draft letter alleging, falsely, that the department was investigating accusations of voter fraud in Georgia. Of course, we don't know if Clark actually wrote that letter himself; he had no expertise in this area, and evidence suggests the White House communications office was involved. Either way, on New Year's Eve 2020, Trump tried to install Clark as acting attorney general, until then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his deputies threatened mass resignation."

https://www.salon.com/2022/06/06/whitehouse-dark-money/

"According to a report released by the Senate Judiciary Committee in October, Trump also attempted to weaponize the Justice Department following his election defeat, enlisting the help of sympathetic officials to cast doubt over Biden's win. Key to this scheme was Jeffrey Clark, the then-head of the Justice Department's civil division, who sent a letter to the Georgia legislature, vastly overstating the agency's concern around the state's election results.

"The Department will update you as we are able on investigatory progress, but at this time we have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia," Clark wrote at the time, even though the department found no evidence of election-altering fraud.

Clark's letter, however, needed an official go-ahead from then-acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue, then the Justice Department's second-in-command. And both men quickly shut the effort down."

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/14/6-ways-to-overturn-an-election-according-to-team-memos/

"READ: Letter Jeffrey Clark Circulated At DOJ In Attempted Georgia Coup

A drafted letter circulated by a top Department of Justice official in the Trump administration puts in stark terms the effort to hand the Republican-led Georgia legislature an opportunity to overturn the election results.

Jeffrey Clark, then an acting assistant attorney general, pushed then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue to sign the letter pushing Georgia lawmakers to convene a special session of the state legislature to throw President Joe Biden’s win into doubt.

The December 2020 letter, along with emails sent between the three officials, was first reported by ABC News."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-doj-georgia-clark-rosen-donaghue

"Top members of the Department of Justice last year rebuffed another DOJ official who asked them to urge officials in Georgia to investigate and perhaps overturn President Joe Biden's victory in the state -- long a bitter point of contention for former President Donald Trump and his team -- before the results were certified by Congress, emails obtained by ABC News show."

https://abcnews.go.com/US/doj-officials-rejected-colleagues-request-intervene-georgias-election/story?id=79243198

The half-page memo can be read at both of the links above.

Jeffrey Clark.

***

Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon "Green Bay Sweep" seditious conspiracy (The Coup Vote)

This plot by Trump advisor Peter Navarro and former top Trump advisor Steve Bannon was the coordinated effort by members of Congress to reject legal electoral votes in order to delay the certification of the election. This plot was designed to apply pressure on Pence to carry out his designated role in the coup (as outlined by Eastman, Ellis, and others), send the "disputed" electoral votes back to the states so that Republican-controlled state legislatures could have a pretext to "legally" find a way to appoint their desired "alternate electors", and also delay electoral certification for long enough to buy time for bogus vote recounts (as outlined in the Whaldron Coup Powerpoint--the Arizona recount was a botched attempt at this). Another possibility (outlined by Navarro and others) was for Republican members of Congress to invalidate enough electoral votes so that Biden no longer had the 270 electoral votes needed to automatically win, and therefore the Republican-dominated House of Representatives would then vote for who the President would be.

It is critical to understand that this conspiracy was ACTED UPON by 147 members of Congress. They are all participants in not only the seditious conspiracy, but also of actual sedition, and must be punished for it.

Navarro bragging about his role in planning this seditious conspiracy was covered here:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2022/01/this-is-why-we-need-to-lock-red-coup-organizers-up-peter-navarro-coup-vote-green-bay-sweep.html

Briefly, here is additional information regarding Bannon and Navarro's role in planning the Coup Vote.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-advisor-peter-navarro-lays-out-how-he-and-steve-bannon-planned-to-overturn-bidens-electoral-win

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/peter-navarro-interview-jan-6-electoral-college-1277938/

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/navarro-bannon-green-bay-sweep-2020-election-results

https://www.salon.com/2022/01/04/ex-aide-peter-navarro-says-100-members-were-ready-to-carry-out-coup/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/jan6-peter-navarro-ted-cruz-green-bay-sweep-1276742/

While most media articles have focused on Navarro, we must not forget that in Navarro's own words, Bannon was the real genius behind the Coup Vote:

"January 6th, this whole notion that little Jamie Raskin's got that, somehow, President Trump wanted to do an insurrection," Navarro said, before pointing to Bannon. "You were the hero of January 6th.

"You were the guy who had the 'Green Bay Packers Sweep' strategy to go up to Capitol Hill," he said.

https://www.newsweek.com/peter-navarro-steve-bannon-hero-january-6-capitol-riots-1660421

Peter Navarro.

Steve Bannon.

The 147 Republican politicians who voted to overthrow the government during the Coup Vote. Their names can be found in our article on the Coup Vote.

***

John Eastman Memos

Trump lawyer John Eastman produced two memos describing Vice President Pence's role in overthrowing the election. It seems Eastman's memos weighed heavily on Trump's mind as he made his speech on January 6th, where he put immense pressure on Pence to follow through with his assigned role.

The Eastman Memos are some of the most damning evidence in the coup attempt. Had Pence followed through with Eastman's plan, who knows how quickly our nation would have collapsed into civil war...

The Eastman Memos were previously discussed on this blog. The post below contains excerpts from both Eastman's two-page memo and his more detailed six-page memo:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2021/11/this-is-why-we-need-to-lock-red-coup-organizers-up-eastman-defends-coup.html

"6. The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission – either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court. Let the other side challenge his actions in court, where Tribe (who in 2001 conceded the President of the Senate might be in charge of counting the votes) and others who would press a lawsuit would have their past position -- that these are non-justiciable political questions – thrown back at them, to get the lawsuit dismissed. The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter. We should take all of our actions with that in mind.""

"BOLD, Certainly. But this Election was Stolen by a strategic Democrat plan to systematically flout existing election laws for partisan advantage; we’re no longer playing by Queensbury Rules, therefore.

[...]

I have outlined the likely results of each of the above scenarios, but I should also point out that we are facing a constitutional crisis much bigger than the winner of this particular election. If the illegality and fraud that demonstrably occurred here is allowed to stand—and the Supreme Court has signaled unmistakably that it will not do anything about it—then the sovereign people no longer control the direction of their government, and we will have ceased to be a self-governing people. The stakes could not be higher."

Eastman is correct that if "the illegality and fraud that demonstrably occurred here" will be "allowed to stand", then the people will "no longer control the direction of their government, and we will have ceased to be a self-governing people." This is why Eastman and all other coup organizers need to be arrested and put on trial for treason IMMEDIATELY. Eastman has bragged that his coup plot is still legal and "solid". Every day he walks free is another day he is able to continue plotting the next coup.

John Eastman.

***

Johnny McEntee Memo

Johnny McEntee was in charge of the Presidential Personnel Office and had a significant amount of power in Trump's final days in office as an "enforcer" to clean house of anyone who would not toe the line. Under McEntee, the Pentagon was packed with individuals obedient to Trump in the months leading up to the Insurrection (including Defense Secretary Mark Esper who was illegally replaced by "Acting" Defense Secretary Christopher Miller).

After White House Counsel Pat Cipollone told Trump that Pence could not overthrow the election, on January 1, 2021, McEntee wrote a dissenting memo outlining alleged ways in which Thomas Jefferson's actions as Vice President supposedly allowed Pence to unilaterally overthrow the election, and sent this memo to Pence's chief of staff. Journalist Jonathan Karl reported this memo in an article in The Atlantic on November 9, 2021.

The article, which includes the full memo, can be read below:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/trump-johnny-mcentee-january-6-betrayal/620646/

Johnny McEntee.

***

Jenna Ellis Memos

On December 31, 2020, Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis sent a one-page memo to Trump outlining how Pence could overthrow the election. This memo was first described by Jonathan Karl in the book Betrayal and the memo was published by Politico on December 10, 2021. On January 5th, Ellis sent a two-page memo to Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow, outlining in more detail how Pence could overthrow the election. This second memo was first reported by Politico as well.

Ellis's plan involved Pence simply not opening or acknowledging the electoral votes from "swing states", and then sending the electors back to the Republican-controlled state legislatures until January 15th. If the states did not provide a recount or alternate electors by then, their electoral votes would not be counted, presumably bringing the total number of Biden's electoral votes below 270, causing the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to choose the President.

A pdf of both memos can be read here:
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000017d-a4d0-dac5-abff-a5ddcf600000

"A Donald Trump campaign lawyer wrote two legal memos in the week before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack that claimed then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to refuse to count presidential electors from states that delivered Joe Biden the White House.

[...]

A Dec. 31 Ellis memo delivered to Trump’s office suggested that Pence — who was constitutionally responsible for presiding over Congress’ counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6 — should simply refuse to open envelopes from states whose election results Trump considered to be fraudulent. That memo was described by ABC reporter Jonathan Karl in his recent book “Betrayal.” POLITICO is publishing it in full for the first time.

In a second, previously unreported memo dated Jan. 5, Ellis made a more technical legal argument that she delivered to Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's outside lawyers. Sekulow represented Trump during his first impeachment and in a series of legal battles during his administration, but he had minimal involvement in Trump’s election litigation. The exception was an early November Supreme Court case regarding Pennsylvania’s mail-in ballots.

In the Jan. 5 memo, Ellis argued that key provisions of the Electoral Count Act — limiting Pence’s authority to affirm or reject certain electors — were likely unconstitutional. She concluded that Pence, while presiding over lawmakers’ counting of electors, should simply halt the process when their alphabetical proceeding reached Arizona.

[...]

Ellis said in a statement that her memos "were exploring legal theories" rather than wholesale endorsements of the legal strategies she was outlining.

"At no time did I advocate for overturning the election or that Mike Pence had the authority to do so," Ellis told POLITICO. "As part of my role as a campaign lawyer and counsel for President Trump, I explored legal options that might be available within the context of the U.S. Constitution and statutory law.”

[...]

Ellis' memos were written as other Trump advisers were laying out similarly extreme legal arguments for Pence to upend Biden’s victory.

Notably, Ellis’ memos did not go as far as those authored by lawyer John Eastman, another Trump adviser. Eastman claimed Pence had the authority to declare Trump the outright winner of the election by simply excluding dozens of Biden electors from Congress’ tally."

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/10/trump-lawyer-pence-biden-524088

Jenna Ellis.

***

Joseph Schmitz Memo (Jim Jordan Memo)

On January 5th, 2021, Representative Jim Jordan sent a memo to Mark Meadows with an argument of how it was legal for Pence to overthrow the election. On December 13, 2021, the January 6th Select Committee revealed this text message. Two days later Jim Jordan's spokesmen confessed it was him, but said he was "merely" forwarding a memo he had received from Joseph Schmitz, a Bush-era Inspector General of the Department of Defense and former national security advisor to Trump's 2016 campaign team.

"The outlet published what was apparently meant to be a rebuttal to House Jan. 6 committee member Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealing on Monday that Mark Meadows had received a text from an unidentified lawmaker arguing that “On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.”

Schiff didn’t identify the lawmaker by name at the time, but on Wednesday the Federalist went ahead and revealed that the sender was Jordan while simultaneously accusing Schiff of purposefully distorting the text.

In the telling of the Federalist, Schiff had deceptively edited the screenshot he presented to the House and misleadingly attributed the language to the unnamed “lawmaker.” The Federalist claimed that the text was actually written by a lawyer named Joseph Schmitz who was summarizing to Jordan his legal theory that Pence could throw out Biden electors, and that Jordan had merely forwarded Schmitz’s summary to Meadows. This, the Federalist seemed to suggest, was quite different from Jordan personally proposing that Pence do so."

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/federalist-reveal-jim-jordan-text-mark-meadows-pence-election

"Rep. Jim Jordan's office confirmed Wednesday that the Ohio Republican was one of the lawmakers whose text messages to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows were released this week by the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

[...]

“Mr. Jordan forwarded the text to Mr. Meadows and Mr. Meadows certainly knew it was a forward,” Jordan’s spokesman told NBC News on Wednesday.

Some smartphones do not specify that a text message has been forwarded."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/gop-rep-jim-jordan-confirms-january-6-panel-released-text-n1286074

The full text of the memo:

"On January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as President of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all -- in accordance with guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial precedence. 'No legislative act,' wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 78, 'contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.' The court in Hubbard v. Lowe reinforced this truth: 'That an unconstitutional statute is not a law at all is a proposition no longer open to discussion.' 226 F. 135, 137 (SDNY 1915), appeal dismissed, 242 U.S. 654 (1916). Following this rationale, an unconstitutionally appointed elector, like an unconstitutionally enacted statute, is no elector at all."

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/15/politics/jim-jordan-mark-meadows-text/index.html

Joseph Schmitz.

Jim Jordan, who has illegally been serving in Congress since January 6th, 2021.

***

Marjorie Taylor Greene text

On January 17, 2021--over a week after the Insurrection--Marjorie Taylor Greene and others were still plotting for ways to keep Trump in power. This isn't really much of a memo, but seeing as Greene advocated for implementing martial law, she moved beyond mere rabble-rousing and into a discussion of a specific method to carry out a coup.

Greene's text to Mark Meadows was first reported and published by CNN on April 25, 2022.

"In mid-January 2021, just days before President Joe Biden's inauguration, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to tell him some GOP members of Congress had privately suggested former President Trump should declare martial law, according to texts obtained by CBS News and first reported by CNN. Greene testified last week she does not recall whether she encouraged the president to impose martial law.

"In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall law," Greene wrote to Meadows on January 17, 2021. "I don't know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!"

That is one of multiple texts Greene sent to Meadows in the post-election period, around January 6, 2021. Greene also told Meadows "we think" the people who assaulted the Capitol on January 6 "are Antifa" dressed like Trump supporters. Meadows turned over his text messages to the January 6 committee probing the assault and then declined to cooperate further with the committee."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marjorie-taylor-greene-martial-law-mark-meadows-text-messages/

As more information comes to light, we will probably see the precise ways in which her messaging circle was advocating for martial law to be enacted.

**

From what the media is reporting, Greene may genuinely be stupid, but she is incredibly dangerous.

Previously, the Republican Party stood by her to support her calls for murdering political opponents:
https://authenticamericandream.blogspot.com/2021/02/republicans-endorse-marjorie-taylor-greenes-calls-for-murder-and-insurrection.html

In other words, she has helped to push the Republican Party's official strategy to include assassinations. We are entering into extremely dangerous times.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, professional terrorist who has illegally been serving in Congress since January 6th, 2021.

*****

We will not be safe until every one of the individuals listed above is arrested, put on trial for their crimes, convicted, and put in prison. Until they face punishment for their role in the coup attempt, they will continue plotting future coup attempts and continue stoking violence against Americans.

If they are not punished, it will indicate a cover up of the coup attempt, and indicate the so-called Justice Department is complicit in the whole affair. If there is no "political will" to prosecute people who literally wrote COUP MEMOS, then, by simple logic, there is no "political will" to keep our country intact.

Let's hope justice prevails.