Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the US House of Representatives select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol a PowerPoint presentation recommending that then-US president Donald Trump declare a national security emergency to return himself to the presidency.
That Meadows was in possession of a PowerPoint the day before the Capitol attack that detailed ways to stage a coup suggests he was at least aware of efforts by Trump and his allies to stop US President Joe Biden’s certification from taking place on Jan. 6.
The PowerPoint, titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 Jan,” made several recommendations for Trump to pursue to retain the presidency for a second term on the basis of lies and debunked conspiracies about widespread election fraud.
Meadows turned over a version of the PowerPoint presentation that he received in an e-mail and which spanned 38 pages, a source familiar with the matter said.
The Guardian reviewed a second, 36-page version of the PowerPoint marked for dissemination with Jan. 5 metadata, which had some differences with what the committee received.
However, the title of the PowerPoint and its recommendations remained the same, the source said.
US senators and representatives should first be briefed about foreign interference, the PowerPoint said, at which point Trump could declare a national emergency, declare all electronic voting invalid, and ask Congress to agree on a constitutionally acceptable remedy.
The PowerPoint also outlined three options for then-US vice-president Mike Pence to abuse his largely ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, when Biden was to be certified president, and unilaterally return Trump to the White House.
Pence could seat Trump slates of electors over the objections of Democrats in key states, reject the Biden slates of electors or delay the certification to allow for a “vetting” and counting of only “legal paper ballots,” the PowerPoint said.
The final option for Pence was similar to an option that was simultaneously being advanced on Jan. 4 and 5 by Trump lieutenants — led by lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, as well as White House chief strategist Steve Bannon — working from the Willard hotel in Washington.
The Guardian last week reported that sometime between the late evening of Jan. 5 and the early hours of Jan. 6, after Pence declined to go ahead with such plans, Trump then pressed his lieutenants about how to stop Biden’s certification from taking place entirely.
The recommendations in the PowerPoint for Trump and Pence were based on unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, including that “the Chinese systematically gained control over our election system” in eight key battleground states.
Then-acting attorney general Jeff Rosen and his predecessor, Bill Barr, who had both been appointed by Trump, by Jan. 5 had already determined that there was no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the outcome of last year’s election.
The committee is also subpoenaing six people who the panel says were involved in the organization and planning of rallies that aimed to overturn Trump’s defeat in the election.
The committee chairman, US Representative Bennie Thompson, said some worked to stage the events and “some appeared to have had direct communication” with Trump as they were planning the rallies.
The subpoenas were issued to Robert “Bobby” Peede Jr and Max Miller, who the committee said met with Trump in his private dining room on Jan. 4; Brian Jack, Trump’s political director at the time; and rally organizers Bryan Lewis, Ed Martin and Kimberly Fletcher.
Additional reporting by AP
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS