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
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