The fact that anyone is discussing the possibility of martial law demonstrates how much Trump has degraded our democracy. When Hillary Clinton lost the election in the Electoral College in 2016, she graciously conceded; she didn’t demand endless recounts. Trump continues to whine about a “rigged” election, although historically it is the party in power that has the opportunity to “rig” any election. Although he lost more than 50 lawsuits in state and federal courts, his campaign is still litigating his loss, trying to throw out the vote in Pennsylvania. Since he apparently has no legal way to overturn the election, he is trying to dirty Biden’s clear victory over him, and at the same time, undermine the integrity of our electoral process, which is the basis of our democracy. He is a vengeful, spiteful baby, whining all the way out the door.
Amber Phillips wrote in the Washington Post about Trump’s desperate search for a way to overturn the electoral results, including martial law:
He’s thought about it. He’s hosted political and legal outcasts at the White House to talk about it.
Could President Trump declare martial law, or seize voting machines, or try to otherwise steal the election by force in his last month in office? Any of those would be an extreme escalation of Trump’s already unprecedented strong-arm tactics in his effort to overturn the election results.
The answer is no, he can’t do this stuff, say various national security and election law experts.
But even if these maneuvers aren’t in the president’s tool kit, it’s dangerous for him to talk about them in a way that risks normalizing them — let alone in Oval Office meetings, said nearly every expert The Fix spoke with.
“This is really dangerous stuff to start playing with,” said Rachel Kleinfeld, a national security expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “You cannot normalize extrajudicial action outside the rule of law and believe democracy will hold. Democracies are fragile, even ours.”
But even if Trump could do any of the things he might be entertaining, they wouldn’t actually change the election results: Here’s what he’s mulling, according to Washington Post reporting, and why experts say these efforts won’t get him what he wants.
1. Declare martial law
What this would do: Trump would put the military in charge. It would implement and enforce curfews, keep people in their homes. Former Trump national security adviser Michael T. Flynn has suggested the military could force states to rerun elections. It could even stop members of Congress from coming to work on Jan. 6 to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
Could it happen? No, experts say. There’s absolutely no legal or political precedent for it. “Can the president invade the Congress of the United States? No, he cannot,” said Adav Noti, an election law expert with the Campaign Legal Center.
Some experts were skeptical the president could actually declare martial law in the first place. Governors have that power in their states, but the president doesn’t, Kleinfeld said. (The Post’s Gillian Brockell reports the Supreme Court has never ruled on whether a president can declare martial law without congressional approval.)
“If you have martial law,” Kleinfeld said, “you have total suspension of the Constitution. So that’s a coup, and a coup in this country is not going to happen.”
Trump would also need military buy-in, and military leaders have said they’re not interested in entertaining any of these ideas. Experts were heartened that military leaders expressed regret for participating in a clearing of peaceful protesters outside the White House this summer so the president could pose for a photo he used for political purposes.
Also, declaring martial law wouldn’t do anything to change votes. What is a curfew in December going to do to change an election in November? States aren’t going to redo elections. And even if Congress were unable to certify results, on Jan. 20, the political and legal and military establishment would almost certainly recognize Biden as president. Biden has said he’s confident law enforcement would escort Trump out of the White House on that day if he refused to leave.
After reporting over the weekend that he was briefed on this idea by fringe advisers, Trump tweeted this, throwing cold water on the idea.
Trump has called plenty of accurate reporting “fake news” before, so it’s not the same as an outright denial.
2. Use the Insurrection Act to somehow get control
What this would do: This is slightly different from martial law in that it’s an actual legal tool the president has that allows him to use the military in extreme ways. The Insurrection Act allows the president to call in troops for domestic law enforcement, not unlike what he did this summer in Portland, Ore., during Black Lives Matter protests. It’s supposed to be used only in times of emergency.
But what emergency is there right now that would warrant the military taking to the streets? There is none. Trump could try to gin one up by encouraging protests across the nation on Jan. 6 as Congress certifies results, said Meredith McGehee, an expert in ethics in politics and the director of Issue One.
To that end, Trump allies are planning a rally in Washington that day. Trump is encouraging them: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” he tweeted last week.
That’s scary language, said McGehee, who wondered whether Trump might try to do this in several cities to create the pretense of insurrection and chaos. “Now we have a president who is playing with the notion that we are going to solve conflict with violence,” she said. “That puts us up there truly with the banana republics.”
But this tactic would almost certainly face legal challenges and political blowback. “Talk about an idiotic idea,” Republican strategist Karl Rove recently said on Fox News. “There’s no ability for any president to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1803, claiming that the issue has got to do with the hubbub around the election.”
And just like declaring martial law, it wouldn’t actually change Trump’s results. The Insurrection Act “says nothing about: ‘Therefore the president can stay in power after he’s been voted out in a legitimate election,’” Kleinfeld said.
3. Seize voting machines from states
What this would do: It’s unclear, honestly. It’s an idea that’s been floated to the president on the basis he could somehow try to prove baseless claims that voting machines counted votes incorrectly, or that they were somehow hacked by communist countries.
But those claims been disproved. In Georgia, the Republican secretary of state has presided over three recounts, including one by hand, that confirmed the machines counted votes correctly. An Arizona judge allowed Republicans to view 100 ballots to search for fraud or miscounting, and they found nothing.
“We’re at a point where the votes have been counted,” Noti said. “The machines are done. There was no fraud.”
Also, this is illegal without states’ permission. The Constitution gives states the authority to run their own elections as they see fit. Taking the voting machines would fall to the Department of Homeland Security, and its head, Chad Wolf, has told the White House he’s doesn’t have the authority, according to Post reporting.
4. Set up a special counsel to investigate voter fraud
Trump has toyed with putting one of the most conspiracy-theory-minded lawyers in his orbit, Sidney Powell, into an official position to “investigate” whether there was fraud that led to his loss.
What this would do: Not much.
For one, it doesn’t seem like she’ll find anything. In six states he lost, officials have found just a handful of incidents worth investigating — nowhere near the tens of thousand of votes Trump would need to overturn his loss. The courts have nearly universally rejected his claims as well.
Two, she wouldn’t have much time. A special counsel can’t be removed by the next president, but a Biden Justice Department could just silo her and give her zero resources.
Three, the Justice Department would need to implement this, and it’s not clear Trump has that support. Attorney General William P. Barr said on his way out the door this week that he saw no need. His replacement, Jeffrey A. Rosen, hasn’t commented on this…
Of all the ideas floated out there, this one is the flimsiest, experts said. (But they stressed that they are all infeasible.) “Like all the post-election litigation by the president’s team, it’s all half-baked ideas that don’t have a basis in law and don’t have a basis in fact and don’t have any chance of success,” Noti said, “however success is defined other than whipping some portion of the American public into a frenzy.”
5. Have Congress protest the election
What this would do: Again, nothing to change the election results. But this is one of the only ideas Trump has considered that he could legally do.
Well, not himself.
When Congress meets Jan. 6 to confirm Biden’s win, Trump has lined up several House Republican lawmakers to challenge as many as half a dozen states he lost. But they won’t actually succeed in changing the outcome. They don’t have support yet from a Republican senator, and without that, their objections die immediately.
If a Republican senator does join in — potentials include incoming senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama or Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky — Congress has to debate and vote on their challenges. Lawmakers will almost certainly vote them down, even the Republican-controlled Senate. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, has said these challenges are “going down like a shot dog.” There’s no legal basis not to accept state’s electors that, taken together, make Biden president.
So all of this talk about possible actions is just that: talk. And Trump will probably continue to talk, and tweet, about the election up to noon on Jan. 20, at which point he will be the former president.
There is no realistic way for Trump to remain in power. He does not have the support of any of the power brokers he would need to make that happen. The increasing drumbeat of hysteria on this subject is interesting, if not ominous. Why are we being led to such terror over something that can’t happen? What is that distracting us from?
I know most of you already tuned out during my first paragraph and you’re already preparing your multi-paragraph attacks on me. And for those of you who have made it this far, I’m sure you’ll see the author of the below link and dismiss it as well, but i really wish you would try to read it with an open mind and engage with the actual ideas presenting therein rather than focusing on the personality of the author
People really need to wake up to the propaganda the mainstream news feeds us daily. Please remember that all the major media are owned by six megacorporations which do not have your interests at heart. The only way we can defeat the oligarchy is the power of the people who greatly outnumber them. But first you have to understand the system of control they employ to prevent you from waking up. Regardless of what you think of them personally, people like Greenwald, Johnstone, Taibbi, etc. have spent a great deal of time and effort studying these systems.
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/the-threat-of-authoritarianism-in?r=ktad&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy
Thank you, Dienne.
Another interesting piece by Greenwald. Thanks for sharing!
Why do you think Glen Greenwald, who lives in Brazil under another tyrant, knows more than anyone else?
I’d say that all the hysteria is coming from Trump, his supporters and his nutty “legal advisors” (sic). Just the fact that some Trump people are proposing martial law to maintain power should be alarming to any sentient being. Quote: “Former Trump national security adviser Michael T. Flynn has suggested the military could force states to rerun elections. It could even stop members of Congress from coming to work on Jan. 6 to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win.”
Oh, ho hum, no big deal just ignore this clown. Nothing to worry about.
I think that our democracy will hold and Trump probably won’t go this far (I hope) and even if he did, he would not succeed. But it could lead to violence and bloodshed. However, Trump still has not conceded the election, that’s pretty damn hysterical right there.
Whether you like him or not Trump was a better President then Obama. We would last another 4 years under him. I don’t think we will last very long under The Democrat Dictatorship. The majority of people in this country has lost there voice. If you dont agree with the left you are cancelled. We see this on social media exactly how communist China blocks websites to its citizens. Now Democrats want to waste our money on another impeachment just so they so us they can get away with anything as if this sham of an Election wasn’t enough proof. They are afraid of Trump so they have to make sure he doesn’t run in 2024 but by then they will be a well oiled criminal organization that will never be stopped they dont care about us only how much power they can steal.
If the election was stolen, which you know it is,, you need to open your mind and ask yourself, who would put somebody as president that is demented!! Do you really think he got 80 million votes? No president has!! I am sure most ppl who voted for him have much regret over the decision that Polisa and Karma have told him to do!! What does that say about a Democratic to hate someone so bad, that they careless about the American ppl!! If you can’t see the truth, then go stick your head back in the sand
#1. The election was not stolen. No lawsuit presented by the Trump campaign produced any evidence of fraud. Every court that heard those claims–including judges appointed by Trump–threw out their cases.
#2. Biden is not demented. He is sane and wise. What a relief to have a man as president who can speak in complete sentences and who does not ridicule people who disagree with him. Joe Biden has restored dignity to the White House. Whole days go by and I don’t worry about what the guy in the White House will say or do to encourage the KKK and white supremacists or to humiliate the nation in the eyes of the world.
#3. As Mitch McConnell said, Trump incited an insurrection against the government and the Constitution. He should never ever be allowed to run for office again. Let him stay in Mar-a-Lago with his fellow billionaires.
The article is absolutely correct……BUT…..it fails to implicate the other sides of this cluster F–K (and there are many) of the past 4 years. Those bad DINO, Neo-liberals again!!! I don’t think anyone commenting on this blog doesn’t already know what the article is stating, but it’s just another distraction or CYA piece. No one could ever factor in Trump’s psychological issues (and there are many!). What he is doing now is very dangerous. Lighting a match next to an open gas tank is risky business!
Trump was elected into a damaged system and his mission was to flat out break it into oblivion for it to be rebuilt by an elite few. Trump lost and now Biden gets to do the rebuild and that is a blow to Trump’s enormous ego. “We the People” have spoken and “we” don’t want Trump-landia….”we” need to work to make the politicians work for “us’ instead of us working for them.
Thanks, Dienne. I’m a huge Greenwald fan!
I am not.
Agree, Dienne. The posted article, like so many– and like every day on CNN/ MSNBC– is clickbait. Or worse. After 4 yrs of it, I’m beginning to see it as predatory. Like the Dracula-bit who then bite others, it passes on the disease by giving unwarranted days of air to it45’s pigeon-droppings, which would dry up & be blown away without it. Which means liberal ears get filled with fear-mongering crap, instead of discussions of how to repair the damage that brought us it45. And which also reflects the unhealthy for-profit media which thrives on sensation to sell copy.
Good link, thanks.
Our democracy is under attack by the president and his cult.
To ignore his machinations would be irresponsible.
The responses to this comment are so demoralizing coming from people who I thought were discerning. I guess an article by a discredited journalist on which one bases one’s understanding of an issue passes for scholarship and insight these days. Secular heaven help us all.
But none is more disheartening than your comment, Ginny. This is not “clickbait.” Let’s read the first sentence again, shall we? “He’s thought about it. He’s hosted political and legal outcasts at the White House to talk about it.” Now, please remind me, which American president, which elected American governmental official other than the menagerie of misfits the Idiot has surrounded himself with, which American has ever toyed with these ideas? It’s one thing if some crackpot, self-appointed, ignorant backwoods “militia”-type does this. It’s quite another for these discussions to take place within the White House. That’s not “clickbait.”
Moreover, if anyone here would take the time to read the Wapo piece, she concludes that these things cannot be done. Yet almost everyone above is arguing the same thing the writer did, just in a more snarky, condescending manner.
Here’s what we will see on Jan 6, disruptions in the House, disruptions in the Senate, demonstrations of limited groups of whackos in DC that will likely terrorize the halls of Congress, the streets, the Metros, etc. Police will likely stand by as small acts of violence break out, as they have done in the past. Yes, the Biden/Harris victory will be certified. There will be temper tantrums for all the world to see. And the legitimacy of our nation’s standing will continue to be chipped away. And all you smug “leftists” who distance yourself from liberals and progressives, those of you who are intolerant neighbors of the very people you purport to be so different from, you will wallow in the smug certainty of a fringe, tarnished “journalist” who seems to know more about what’s going on in DC from his perch in Brazil than people who are actually here. Perhaps Biden’s mantra in the next four years will be, “Jokers to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am.” Clickbait, indeed.
Thank you, Greg.
I also thank Greg for his much needed comment.
Sorry to disappoint, Greg. This was my reaction to the posted article BTW, not based on Dienne’s link which I read just before replying, & glad to get insight into Greenwald from you & Bob. Diane I completely agree Trump’s machinations cannot be ignored, must be reported, & certainly discussed. What I object to in media is the horrified tone of the coverage, & going on & on about it, that’s what I mean by clickbait. I would so much rather read straightforward outrage followed by concise, swift balloon-pricking.
Now I’ll take a step back and admit the Phillips article wouldn’t take much editing to meet all my criteria. I just lumped it in with my general displeasure at the amount of coverage MSM gives this wackjob’s appalling behavior, which is exactly what he intends.
Ginny,
What Trump is doing to undermine our democracy is so norm-shattering and rule-breaking and abusive and outrageous that it deserves all the publicity it gets.
The public needs to understand that we have a Constitution and that Trump is trying to shred it.
As far as I am concerned, the media needs to push and prod and shout from the rooftops that he is trying to carry out a coup, by any means necessary.
I read just an hour ago that Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri will support Trump’s effort on Jan 6 to overturn the election.
Hawley is a fake populist. He graduated from Stanford and Yale Law School. Surely, he read the Constitution and knows that the Electoral College voted and that fake slates who present themselves on Jan 6 have no validity. Yet he is supporting Trump’s last ditch effort to have the election overturned.
This is madness, and I don’t see how any concerned citizen can say it is time to ignore what Trump does and stop giving him the attention he craves.
Our democracy is not as sturdy as we thought.
It’s time to be informed, alert, and worried.
Greenwald, as usual, gets pretty basic stuff absolutely wrong. His thesis that Trump is not a fascist and a wannabe authoritarian dictator is simply bizarre and laughable. Trump has made it quite clear that he believes that he has absolute authority:
“Then, I have an Article II, where I have to the right to do whatever I want as president.” –Glorious Leader Who Shines More Orange than Does the Sun
Greenwald makes a big deal of the fact that Trump did not declare martial law and send the military into the streets in response to the BLM protests, but this WASN’T FOR WANT OF TRYING. Historically, in one of the most important moves ever in the history of our country, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper REJECTED TRUMP’S ATTEMPT to do PRECISELY THAT. Then, of course, Trump fired him.
As if this weren’t stupid enough, Greenwald goes on to say that there is “no moral difference” between the Obama administration’s hasty construction of fenced-in facilities at one site to deal with a sudden influx of unaccompanied minors and the Trump administration’s long-term use of wire cages coupled with such policies as separation of children and their parents and shipping of unaccompanied minors, by themselves, back across the border.
It’s interesting that Greenwald gets the obvious and well known THIS WRONG.
“Who knew that healthcare was so hard?” IQ45 infamously asked. He might as well have said, “Who knew that becoming an Authoritarian Despot in the United States was so hard?” In this, as in everything else, Trump failed to become one out of SHEER INCOMPETENCE. He failed again and again when people in his own administration stood up to him or resigned. He SCREAMED at his Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, because she wouldn’t follow his directive to have border guards SHOOT unarmed asylum seekers. In his mind-blowingly stupid, tragically comical way, he tried to become an authoritarian despot by sitting in his residence stuffing his face with cheeseburgers and tweeting out directives for armed thugs to “liberate” Michigan, Minnesota, and Virginia. He called on the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” And he has tried desperately and equally incompetently to overturn the election and has been furious that “his” state legislatures, federal justices, Supreme Court nominees, Defense officials (notably, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley), and even his toadying Attorney General refused to play.
A Google search shows that Greenwald was funded by billionaire Pierre Omidyar with $250 million. Of which he paid himself $500,000.
Reality Winner is spending five years in jail because The Intercept failed to protect her identity as a source.
Greenwald resigned in October because his own staff thought his attacks on Biden went too far.
Greenwald’s most frequent media appearances are on the Tucker Carlson show on FOX.
When I think of his politics, I am reminded of the graph I saw many years ago of the French political spectrum, portrayed as a circle, where the extreme left and the extreme right become indistinguishable.
!!!
I too have long visualized the American political spectrum as a circle rather than a line. Recently I changed my thinking of this and see it more as a vertically aligned oval. The top of the oval–actual centrism–would be what is classified as center-left under the traditional way most define the spectrum. When one takes, for example, the current big picture center-left issues in isolation, that vast majority of them have approval ratings of 60-80 percent, it is inarguable that these are the true “centrist” issues.
What is generally defined as the center is actually center-right. This group would be closer to two o’clock on the oval. I would place the president-elect somewhere between one and two o’clock. The traditional left at about ten o’clock. The ultra far leftists fall somewhere between seven and six o’clock. The far right is at between five and six o’clock. The space between the traditional left and ultra far left is basically a void. Interestingly, the top and bottom of the oval represent the distance between the center-left and ultra left. The ultra left in this scenario are much closer to the ultra right–see the constituency that was easily swayed to vote for Obama and Bernie who then switched to the Idiot for confirmation–and the time between them is getting shorter and shorter as many of the comments demonstrate. When critical mass coalesces at the bottom of this oval, society becomes ungovernable. Weimar-like failures in hyperdrive, if you will.
Well argued, Greg.
–see the constituency that voted for Obama and Bernie only to be easily swayed to vote for the Idiot for confirmation–
“People really need to wake up to the propaganda the mainstream news feeds us daily.”
You can say that again.
But I don’t believe they will.
And at this point, I don’t evdn believe we CAN defeat the oligarchy. Given that companies like Google, Fakebook and Amazon have almost total knowledge and control over people’s communications and hence lives (a state of affairs that the East German Stasi could never have even dreamed of) , I think our country is too far gone.
Interesting and informative, Dienne! I won’t tune anyone out. TY for the post.
On social media evangelicals are launching a mega-prayer vigil. They are praying for a miracle on January 6th. Trump does not deserve any prayers. The only thing he deserves is an orange jumpsuit.
Why pray for a man who has religion other than mammon?
But Pat Robertson has been preaching that Trump has lost and is living in an alternative reality. A G-D has spoken!…..the others should listen.
No way he’ll stop on Jan 20th. It’ll keep coming out of his mouth til he dies. Then it’ll be inherited by his children. The only thing that will silence the Trumps on this is when it becomes unprofitable.
I’m sure that Mussolini’s supporters thought the same of him until. . . !
And you are correct in your last sentence with “unprofitable” referring to his ego and not his bank account.
Daniel: This is correct. Thom Hartmann, this morning, was discussing Ivanka’s& Jared’s plans to move to one of the FL islands (or keys), become a FL resident, then run for Congress against Little Marco.
Some GOP choice, Floridians! Eventually, Ivanka will run for President. There are also plans for Donny Jr.
Since they’ll all be pardoned before daddy leaves, no orange jumpsuits for them, but political offerings in the offing!
BTW, Greenwald, et.al. know quite a bit more than “anyone else” because they do their due diligence, & the msm does not–they are, as Dienne pointed out, beholden to the corporations that own them. Why wouldn’t Rachel Maddow have you on her show, Diane, but Chris Hedges did? Why is Glenn Greenwald not living in the U.S., BTW? {Was he threatened?} Why did Edward Snowden have to flee to Russia? (Haven’t been able to see Greenwald’s, Citizen 4 on any U.S. streaming–& had been on HBO–since he left the country. *Read Snowden’s book, BTW–I couldn’t put it down.) Why do you think it took so long to get the bads on Harvey Weinstein? Read Ronan Farrow’s book–the brass at NBC had him nearly hogtied & censored.
I never thought I’d read Rolling Stone for anything but in-depth music/entertainment reporting, but their stories & serious journalism (Taibbi) has most often been far superior to anything in Time or Newsweek, for that matter. In fact, they are most often the voice of their corporate masters. Has anyone else noticed that their “Letters to the Editor” are–or are mainly–non-existent?
They don’t care what we have to say.
Snowden had to flee to Russia because he committed a crime.
Is Russia morally superior to the US, run by a murderer and tyrant?
Snowden provided a vital service to a free and transparent democracy.
What is Snowden doing now for Russia?
Retired:
No, I do not think Glenn Greenwald does “due diligence” from his comfy perch in Brazil. I believe he writes from his ideological bias. Why does he appear on Tucker Carlson’s show? Why did his own staff at The Intercept refuse to publish his attacks on Biden?
Here’s what matters on January 21st.
Who are the Senators, Representatives, Governors, Attorneys General, and corporations who
… perpetuated the lies,
… ignored 56 state and federal court rulings including the Supreme Court one sentence “no”,
… supported these claims (after legitimate recounts) ranging from illegitimate recounts to insurrection and armed “get wild” protesters
…and scammed millions of dollars from donors after the election?
More and more stories will be revealed after these fools leave the hill and the WH. The names of those who lied, buffered, perpetuated myths and hysteria, and claimed loyalty to this disaster should be posted widely (You can’t not see a billboard no matter what channel or website you follow) and especially in September and October 2022!
This seems like an unlikely scenario–though by saying that I’m not saying
this doesn’t creep me out; it does.
Anyone who needs a good laugh. Netflix put out this “mockumentary” and it is hilarious! I almost wet my pants. Death to 2020
https://www.netflix.com/title/81332175
Thanks for the recommendation. We need a laugh..
Short of the street theater designed to incite violence and seeming to provide grounds for Trump to try for a military response, Scenario 5 is more likely.
Trump’s lawyers have been trying hard to keep Pence from certifying the official electoral college votes. Trump’s lawyers have filed a lawsuit saying Pence must accept a list of alternative electoral votes in so-called “contested states.” These states are Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
I looked at the Arizona lawsuit that names Pence as if he is in violation of law if he certifies the Electoral College votes from Arizona and the four “contested states.” The lawsuit comes from the US Representative for Texas’ First Congressional District and the entire slate of Republican Presidential Electors for the State of Arizona.
I am not a lawyer but the text of this lawsuit is a farce. It turns the process of electoral vote counting upside down. It claims that “The Arizona Electors have cast Arizona’s electoral votes for President Donald J. Trump on December 14, 2020, at the Arizona State Capitol with the permission and endorsement of the Arizona Legislature, i.e., at the time, place, and manner required under Arizona state law and the Electoral Count Act.” This process is portrayed as customary and legal.
“At the same time, Arizona’s Governor and Secretary of State appointed a separate and competing slate of electors who cast Arizona’s electoral votes for former Vice-President Joseph R. Biden, despite the evidence of massive multi-state electoral fraud committed on Biden’s behalf that changed electoral results in Arizona and in other states such as Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin that have also put forward competing slates of electors (collectively, the “Contested States”). Collectively, these Contested States have enough electoral votes in controversy to determine the outcome of the 2020 General Election.”
The role of the Governor and Secretary of State is misrepresented. It is not surprising that the only “nearly-for-certain vote” in favor of this last minute move to sabotage of the electoral process comes from Tommy Tuberville, the ex-coach whose ignorance of the federal government is profound. https://arizonaslaw.blogspot.com/2020/12/breaking-azgop-files-3rd-generation.html
The lawyers who are pushing this latest effort to raise havoc and put Pence on the hot seat, are infamous for marketing Trump’s false claims of election fraud. Their names are Howard Kleinhendler (NY), Julia Haller (DC), William Lewis Sessions (TX) and Lawrence Joseph (DC).
Two lawyers work at a recently invented practice in Washington DC, devoted to supporting Trumps claims of election fraud. This practice, called “Defending the Republic,” is not much more than a website devoted to getting money from donors and inviting reports of election fraud. https://defendingtherepublic.org. This money laundering operation for Trump is marketed by Sydney Powel whose website also seels herself as an author, speakers, and more. https://www.sidneypowell.com/about Her website will take you to the Texas lawsuit https://www.sidneypowell.com/texas
In the Texas lawsuit, Julia Z. Haller and Brandon Johnson are from Defending the Republic. Both are are featured at the “Un-American Bar” website. Julia is cited for work on six of Trump’s lawsuits bearing on voter suppression. Brandon has filed four lawsuits claiming that Trump won the election, not counting the current one, all resoundingly dismissed. The Un-America Bar website also features quotes from the judges who dismissed the false claims and were dismayed at the general incompetence of these two lawyers..
The Un-American Bar website has a database of ninety lawsuits filed on Trump’s behalf. The database has active links to the text of these lawsuits, and shows the outcome of each to date. Of 90 cases,16 are not yet resolved.
Lawyers responsible for this website have had fun designing the “Trump legal theory generator.”
“Donald Trump’s use of mostly incompetent lawyers to try and steal the 2020 election has led to some truly outrageous legal theories of what happened, click below to create your own version of the truth.
If you click “Generate legal theory,” the first example is given:
“This election was rigged by socialists using Hammer and Scorecard in a van full of ballots, but the subversive plot was exposed by the My Pillow Guy.”
You are invited to keep clicking to see some other examples. A second click generates:
“This election was rigged by the Biden crime family using Hammer and Scorecard in a Planned Parenthood, but the subversive plot was exposed by a blue checkmark on Twitter.”
This exercise is offered to entice readers back to the cases actually filed where you can learn more about Trump’s ridicule-worthy and dangerous lawsuits. https://unamericanbar.com/voter-suppression-lawsuits
It is not yet known if any other members of the party of Trump will join Tommy Tuberville in an effort to discredit the election and Pence’s role in counting Electoral College votes.
Fabulous research, Laura!
Laura, thanks again for your intrepid research.
I wish I had a link, but you all must read up on the ignorance of Tommy Tuberville (who has been nicknamed, “Tubs,” by some of his own colleagues!).
I thought GA’s guv Brian Kemp might win the Darwin prize, but I would nominate “Tubs” for a well-deserved first place win.
Excellent research, Laura! TY!
My apologies (not really needed), but for the posting of the Dana Milbank “skinny” on “Tubs” in the previous post, which I missed, because this last one popped up on my screen first. Wonderful “tell all” article, confirming what I’d said above.
We might be in trouble…if he only had a brain.
Glenn Greenwald had an acrimonious departure from The Intercept: Quote –
GLENN GREENWALD’S DECISION to resign from The Intercept stems from a fundamental disagreement over the role of editors in the production of journalism and the nature of censorship. Glenn demands the absolute right to determine what he will publish. He believes that anyone who disagrees with him is corrupt, and anyone who presumes to edit his words is a censor. Thus, the preposterous charge that The Intercept’s editors and reporters, with the lone, noble exception of Glenn Greenwald, have betrayed our mission to engage in fearless investigative journalism because we have been seduced by the lure of a Joe Biden presidency. A brief glance at the stories The Intercept has published on Biden will suffice to refute those claims.
The narrative Glenn presents about his departure is teeming with distortions and inaccuracies — all of them designed to make him appear as a victim, rather than a grown person throwing a tantrum. It would take too long to point them all out here, but we intend to correct the record in time. For now, it is important to make clear that our goal in editing his work was to ensure that it would be accurate and fair. While he accuses us of political bias, it was he who was attempting to recycle the dubious claims of a political campaign — the Trump campaign — and launder them as journalism.
We have the greatest respect for the journalist Glenn Greenwald used to be, and we remain proud of much of the work we did with him over the past six years. It is Glenn who has strayed from his original journalistic roots, not The Intercept.
The defining feature of The Intercept’s work in recent years has been the investigative journalism that came out of painstaking work by our staffers in Washington, D.C., New York, and across the rest of the country. It is the staff of The Intercept that has been carrying out our investigative mission — a mission that has involved a collaborative editing process. end quote
Thank you for the information, Joe. I have been ignorant of all of this.
After reading your comment, Joe, I imagine that Greenwald was on Tucker Carlson because no one else would let him on, esp. as he was on the attack RE: Biden. (Greenwald is in the “ripe for RT” mode now, just like Chris Hedges, whom I both agree & disagree with.)
I do subscribe to Ryan Grim (Intercept), & I just don’t recall reading anything about the G.G. business. Grim just wrote a humdinger… recommended reading.
None of those would fly. He knew it. Don the ‘ConDescending’ King is throwing us back to the age of Flintstone, since his jalopy Dumptruck is not gonna sell well by the end of January 20, 2021(The day his insurance expires).
Get ready cup cake. Its happening.
Whether you like him or not Trump was a better President then Obama. We would last another 4 years under him. I don’t think we will last very long under The Democrat Dictatorship. The majority of people in this country has lost there voice. If you dont agree with the left you are cancelled. We see this on social media exactly how communist China blocks websites to its citizens. Now Democrats want to waste our money on another impeachment just so they so us they can get away with anything as if this sham of an Election wasn’t enough proof. They are afraid of Trump so they have to make sure he doesn’t run in 2024 but by then they will be a well oiled criminal organization that will never be stopped they dont care about us only how much power they can steal.