Plan for Trump to stage coup

Following the failure of Donald Trump’s case to keep documents relating to the January 6 storming of the capital private, the capital attack panel have started to receive the documents sought. One of these is the PowerPoint that set out the plan for Trump to stage coup.

The presentation titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 Jan”, which was turned over by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows makes several recommendations on how to stage a coup. This includes the suggestion Trump declare a national security emergency which would enable him to stay in office.

The existence of the presentation and the fact that Meadows was in possession of it at the time, suggests that at the very least Trump and his allies were aware of the efforts to stop Biden from becoming president.

Understood to be 38 pages long, the presentation is based on lies and debunked conspiracy theories about election fraud, all of which were tested in court and failed.

The plan

The broad outline of the plan was for Trump to brief Congress on foreign interference in the election, then to declare the emergency, declare all electronic voting invalid and ask the then Republican controlled Congress to agree a constitutionally acceptable remedy.

Mike Pence

Three options for then vice-president Mike Pence are also outlined in the plan for Tru,p to stage cooup, all of which call for him to abuse his largely ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress on 6. Doing so would have resulted in Biden’s win not being certified and the return of Trump to the White House.

Abusing his powers involved a number of options that included replacing electors and the rejection of Biden electors or delay the certification to allow for the vetting and counting of ballots they considered legal. The latter was put forward at the same time Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, as well as Steve Bannon his one-time strategist.

It is understood that Trump did ask his team to look into how the whole process could be stopped when it became clear Pence was not prepared to go along with the plans.

Debunked evidence

The evidence on which the PowerPoint relied was based on widely debunked theories that ranged from China controlling the election system in some states, to the late Hugo Chavez having rigged the voting systems.

By the time the PowerPoint was produced all the theories had already been dismissed by two of Trump’s appointments, Acting Attorney General, Jeff Rosen, and his predecessor, Bill Barr,

The investigation

The PowerPoint is just one of more than 6,000 documents turned over by Meadows including text messages wherein the plan is discussed. One of these is believed to have said of the plan “I love it”.

Meadows had until now been cooperating with the Attack Committee but this week withdrew that cooperation, however it is understood that he now faces criminal prosecution for contempt of Congress.

The existence of the PowerPoint that set out plan for Trump to stage coup will help to understand what went on that day, and how the insurrection came about.

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