The media will call this martial law, but. "Our little band of lawyers is working on a memorandum that explains exactly what you can do. "Task your new White House Counsel with identifying how the powers of the presidency can be used to ensure that the People receive a fair election count," Olson wrote in the memo obtained by the Times. Olson also encouraged Trump in the December 28, 2020, memo to replace lawyers in the White House counsel's office who had staunchly opposed the efforts of Trump allies like Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell to take actions like seizing voting machines. The memo appears to be an early sketch of what days later became clear was Trump's approach to pressuring the Justice Department and a wish to potentially replace its top leadership. Given that the Democrats hold a majority in the House and several Republican senators - including party leader Mitch McConnell - have said they accept the result, there is no chance of the election being overturned.The memo said Trump told Olson he would follow up on the plan. If he can find a Senator to do likewise, then the result would be debated in both chambers for up to two hours. Normally the meeting is a formality but Mo Brooks, a congressman from Alabama, has said he will challenge the result. The next stage in the election timetable is when the House and Senate hold a joint session to count the electoral votes, with the hearing presided over by Mike Pence, the vice-president. He is understood to have pressed the Department of Homeland Security to seize voting machines.Īccording to sources cited by the New York Times, the meeting was rowdy with White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, forcefully rejecting the ideas being floated.Īlso attending the meeting was Sidney Powell, a lawyer whose outlandish claims about the election - including suggesting that Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez rigged the presidential election from the grave - led to her being dropped by the Trump legal team.Īpparently back in the Trump fold, she was considered as a potential special counsel tasked with investigating the fraud allegations. ![]() Rudy Giuliani, who acted as Mr Trump's legal adviser, attended the meeting by phone. The tone of the White House meeting will ring alarm bells in the US, even if the ideas seem outlandish. It has asked the court to disqualify the popularly elected delegates to the Electoral College, with their replacements being chosen by the state's Republican-controlled legislature. On Sunday the Trump campaign made a fresh attempt to persuade the US Supreme Court to overturn the election result in Pennsylvania, claiming that 2.6 million mail-in ballots cast in the state were illegal and should not have been counted. “He could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states, and basically rerun an election in each of those states.” Undeterred by court after court rejecting legal bids to overturn Mr Trump's defeat and the Electoral College confirming Mr Biden's victory, Mr Flynn proposed more drastic measures on the conservative political website, Newsmax. Mr Flynn, who was pardoned by Mr Trump after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI during its investigation into Russian election interference in 2016, has emerged as one of the most outspoken supporters of the claim that Mr Biden's victory was "rigged". 'Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election, he tweeted on Saturday. Still refusing to accept that he lost, Mr Trump has called for a massive rally in Washington DC on Jan 6, the day when both houses of Congress meet to formally confirm Joe Biden's election. Reports of the meeting were dismissed as "fake news" and "bad reporting" by Mr Trump on Twitter. ![]() The meeting was the latest surreal twist in Mr Trump's relentless - and up to now unsuccessful - attempt to reverse his crushing defeat by Joe Biden. Donald Trump discussed the possibility of imposing martial law to overturn the election with Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, it was reported in the US.Īccording to the New York Times, the president asked Mr Flynn to expand on the idea at a White House meeting on Friday.
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