CNN reports, House January 6 committee now has all the White House records Trump tried to block:
The House select committee investigating January 6 has received all 700-plus pages from the National Archives that former President Donald Trump had tried to block the panel from receiving.
A spokesperson for the National Archives told CNN, “Yesterday evening NARA provided the Select Committee with all the records at issue in the litigation.”
The Supreme Court cleared the way for the panel to receive the documents earlier this week.
The Archives said in a court filing in October that the records Trump wanted to keep secret include handwritten memos from his chief of staff Mark Meadows about January 6, call logs of the then-President and former Vice President Mike Pence, and White House visitor records.
Based on a sworn declaration from the National Archives’ B. John Laster, the records Trump was trying to keep secret from the committee also included working papers from Meadows, the press secretary and a White House lawyer who had notes and memos about Trump’s efforts to undermine the election.
In the Meadows documents alone, there are three handwritten notes about the events of January 6 and two pages listing briefings and telephone calls about the Electoral College certification, the archivist said.
The documents the panel received also included 30 pages of Trump’s daily schedule, White House visitor logs and call records, Laster wrote. The call logs, schedules and switchboard checklists document “calls to the President and Vice President, all specifically for or encompassing January 6, 2021,” Laster said.
The panel is also hoping to receive from the Archives never-before-seen drafts of videos Trump made on January 6 before releasing the final video calling on his supporters to leave the US Capitol.
The first bombshell report to drop from the documents confirms the rumored draft executive order for the Department of Defense to seize voting machines and equipment — the very definition of a coup d’etat. The very fact that this was discussed and put to paper establishes that there is a seditious conspiracy. (Normally an executive order would have gone through layers of White House lawyers in its drafting. This draft eecutive order appears not to have been produced in this way.)
Politico reports, Read the never-issued Trump order that would have seized voting machines:
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.”
POLITICO has reviewed both documents. The text of the draft executive order is published here for the first time.
The executive order — which also would have appointed a special counsel to probe the 2020 election — was never issued. The remarks are a draft of a speech Trump gave the next day. Together, the two documents point to the wildly divergent perspectives of White House advisers and allies during Trump’s frenetic final weeks in office.
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.
A spokesperson for the House’s Jan. 6 select committee confirmed earlier Friday that the panel had received the last of the documents that Trump’s lawyers tried to keep under wraps and later declined to comment for this story on these two documents.
The draft executive order
The draft executive order shows that the weeks between Election Day and the Capitol attack could have been even more chaotic than they were. It credulously cites conspiracy theories about election fraud in Georgia and Michigan, as well as debunked notions about Dominion voting machines.
The order empowers the defense secretary to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under” a U.S. law that relates to preservation of election records. It also cites a lawsuit filed in 2017 against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
This would be an unambiguous violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. A clear indication that it did not go through layers of White House lawyers.
Additionally, the draft order would have given the defense secretary 60 days to write an assessment of the 2020 election. That suggests it could have been a gambit to keep Trump in power until at least mid-February of 2021.
The full text of the never-issued executive order can be read here.
It opens by citing a host of presidential authorities to permit the steps that Trump would take, including the Constitution and Executive Order 12333, a well-known order governing the intelligence community. But the draft executive order also cites two classified documents: National Security Presidential Memoranda 13 and 21.
The existence of the first of those memoranda is publicly known, but the existence of the second has not been previously reported. NSPM 13 governs the Pentagon’s offensive cyber operations. According to a person with knowledge of the memoranda, 21 makes small adjustments to 13, and the two documents are viewed within the executive branch as a pair.
The fact that the draft executive order’s author knew about the existence of Memorandum 21 suggests that they had access to information about sensitive government secrets, the person told POLITICO.
The draft order also greenlit “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.”
To bolster its provisions, the draft order cites “the forensic report of the Antrim County, Michigan voting machines.” That report was produced by Russ Ramsland, who confused precincts in Minnesota for those in Michigan, according to the Washington Post. Michigan’s secretary of state, meanwhile, released an exhaustive report rebutting election conspiracy theories and concluding that none of the “known anomalies” in Antrim County’s November 2020 election were the result of any security breach.
Don't forget that Cyber Ninjas' head honcho Doug Logan, before he chosen to lead the Arizona "audit," was part of the team that was behind the "garbage" Antrim County report. https://t.co/n1EOfqYmRg
— Jeremy Duda (@jeremyduda) January 21, 2022
“This draft order represents not only an abuse of emergency powers, but a total misunderstanding of them,” said Liza Goitein, co-director of the liberty and national security program at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice. “The order doesn’t even make the basic finding of an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ that would be necessary to trigger any action under [federal emergency powers law]. It’s the legal equivalent of a kid scrawling on the wall with crayons.”
The draft remarks
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 “national healing” document continued with sharp criticism of the attack.
“The Demonstrators who infiltrated the Capitol have defiled the seat of American Democracy,” the remarks state. “I am directing the Department of Justice to ensure all lawbreakers are prosecuted to the fullest extent” of the law.”
The document follows with a direct communication to the rioters: “We must send a message – not with mercy but with justice. To those who engaged in acts of violence and destruction, I want to be very clear: you do not represent me. You do not represent our movement. You do not represent our country. And if you broke the law, you belong in jail.”
Oh, your “Dear Leader” was ready to throw you under the bus, you damn ignorant MAGA/QAnon seditious insurrectionists. Loyalty flows only one way with Donald Triump, and you are all expendable.
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.”
Sorry suckers, your “Dear Leader” didn’t mean it. He doesn’t really love you. A nihilisitc narcissist only loves himself, and he will use you.
The day after the attack, facing a torrent of criticism and public discussion about invoking the 25th Amendment in order to remove him from office, Trump delivered an Oval Office address similar to the draft remarks. In that address, Trump also condemned the violence at the Capitol and called for perpetrators to be held accountable.
Draft vs. reality
The draft remarks go on to describe emotions running high after an intense election. “But now, tempers must be cooled and calm restored.”
Trump “vigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results,” the remarks add, and still urges election “reform” so voters could be confident about future contests.
“But as for THIS election, Congress has now certified the results,” the remarks say. “The election fight is over. A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”
Wow, the concession speech that Trump still has not given to this day, instead he is perpetrating his Big Lie.
In the year since the riot, Trump’s recent characterization of the attack has veered wildly from that sentiment in the draft remarks. The former president has described the 2020 election as “the insurrection” and Jan. 6, 2021, as “the Protest.” He has also praised Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who entered the Capitol and was shot and killed there by a police officer.
The Department of Justice has no choice but to investigate this seditious conspiracy with the revelation of this “smoking gun” evidence. Prosecutions of everyone in that Dec. 18, 2020 oval office meeting, i.e., Sidney Powell, former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump administration lawyer Emily Newman, and former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, and Donald Trump are merited. And everyone else involved.
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January 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson was on Face The Nation, and dropped another bombshell on Sunday. “Transcript: Representative Bennie Thompson on “Face the Nation,” January 23, 2022″, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/transcript-representative-bennie-thompson-face-the-nation-01-23-2022/
[Note: Recall that Trump made a number of political appointments to the Department of Defense after election day. Media speculation at the time was that it was about his desire to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of the year. Wrong! It was to put his sycophants in place so that he could use military assets for his coup d’etat.]
MARGARET BRENNAN: There was also another story, significant. POLITICO published the text of a draft executive order that had been presented to President Trump in Dec of 2020 to have the defense secretary seize voting machines in battleground states. And multiple news organizations have now reported this. Do you intend to go to the Attorney General, Bill Barr, to ask him about this? I mean, how do you follow up on- on this kind of allegation and the paperwork to back it up?
REP. THOMPSON: Well, yes, we do. To be honest with you, we’ve had conversations with the former attorney general already. We have talked to Department of Defense individuals. We are concerned that our military was part of this big lie on promoting that the election was false. So, if you are using the military to potentially seize voting machines, even though it’s a discussion, the public needs to know, we’ve never had that before. And so any of these individuals who are participating and trying to stop the election, the duly election of a president, and if we can document it, we will share it with the public.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I just want to follow up on something you said. Do you have proof that there was someone inside the United States military working on this premise? Of actually seizing voting machines.
REP. THOMPSON: Well, we have information that between the Department of Justice, a plan was put forward to potentially seize voting machines in the country and utilize Department of Defense assets to make that happen.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Something beyond this draft executive order, there was actually an operational plan?
REP. THOMPSON: Well, no, not an operational plan, but just the draft itself is-
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK.
REP. THOMPSON: –Is reason enough to believe that it was being proposed. Our job is to get to the facts and circumstances of how far did they go? We do know that a potential person was identified to become the attorney general of the United States [Jeffrey Clark], who would communicate with certain states that election on their situation had been fraudulent and not to produce certified documents. Well, we understand that. So, we will move forward on that investigation, and we will look and see specifically how far that plan went.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s incredible. Will the former attorney general, Bill Barr, testify to you? Will you seek out other members of the military to clarify some of what you just laid out here?
REP. THOMPSON: Well, part of our plan is to continue to engage all those individuals that we deem necessary and important to our investigation. Some will talk to some we will do in deposition under oath. Others we will offer hearing opportunities. But I can assure you, as we develop this information, we will clearly present it to the public. We plan at this point to have a series of public hearings showing the use of federal assets, Department of Justice, Department of Defense and other agencies to actually stop the duly election of a president. So, we’ll do it in-in due time.