Donald Trump, Sidney Powell, and Michael Flynn meet with advisers at the White House to discuss election investigations and enacting martial law. The meeting lasts more than four hours and becomes an attempt by Powell, Flynn, and others to convince Trump to sabotage his own White House.
Others at the meeting early on include White House counsel Pat Cipollone, White House staff secretary Derek Lyons, administration official Emily Newman, and Patrick Byrne — the former CEO of Overstock who was in a relationship with Russian agent Maria Butina. Rudy Giuliani and Trump campaign lawyer Matt Morgan join via speaker phone. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows joins the conversation much later.
This is reportedly the first time that Trump and Byrne had ever met.
They’d come to convince Trump that he had the power to take extreme measures to keep fighting… The hours to come would pit the insurgent conspiracists against a handful of White House lawyers and advisers determined to keep the president from giving in to temptation to invoke emergency national security powers, seize voting machines and disable the primary levers of American democracy.
Axios
White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann is also joins the group to monitor the situation. It’s Herschmann who calls for White House counsel when Sidney Powell starts in on her ideas.
Part of the discussion involves giving Powell and her squad of conspiracists top-secret security clearances and naming Powell as special counsel in an investigation of voter fraud. She brought with her an affidavit that she claims will prove rigged voting machines were developed in Venezuela, the same machines used by Dominion. According to Powell, Dominion used the machines to flip the vote in one Georgia county. Trump won that county.
Ms. Powell’s ideas were shot down by every other Trump adviser present, all of whom repeatedly pointed out that she had yet to back up her claims with proof. At one point, one person briefed on the meeting said, she produced several affidavits, but upon inspection they were all signed by a man she has previously used as an expert witness, whose credentials have been called into question.
The New York Times
Trump also asks about declaring martial law, which Flynn began pushing at least three weeks ago. The idea is that Trump could order martial law in swing states and force a “redo” of the election. Reports say the discussion never includes the actual words “martial law” but the Powell/Flynn plan describes it in detail.
Mr. Cipollone told Mr. Trump there was no constitutional authority for what was being discussed, one of the people briefed on the meeting said. Other advisers from the White House and the Trump campaign delivered the same message throughout the meeting, which stretched on for a long period of time.
The New York Times
Another topic was weighing the possibility of using an executive order to seize voting machines for examination. Giuliani spoke with DHS about seizing voting machines the day before.
At some point, triggered by Herschmann’s disregard for Powell’s ideas, Michael Flynn almost goes off the deep end.
“You’re quitting! You’re a quitter! You’re not fighting!” he exploded at the senior adviser. Flynn then turned to the president, and implored: “Sir, we need fighters.”
Herschmann ignored Flynn at first and continued to probe Powell’s pitch with questions about the underlying evidence. “All you do is promise, but never deliver,” he said to her sharply.
Flynn was ranting, seemingly infuriated about anyone challenging Powell, who had represented him in his recent legal battles.
Finally Herschmann had enough. “Why the fuck do you keep standing up and screaming at me?” he shot back at Flynn. “If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down.” Flynn sat back down.
Axios
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/trump-sidney-powell-voter-fraud.html
https://www.axios.com/giuliani-homeland-security-seize-voting-machines-4ee2e575-e32c-46a2-9f0b-fd80dd63049c.html
https://www.shiftfrequency.com/byrne-blasts-white-house-staff-after-attending-election-meeting/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/14/a-tycoons-deep-state-conspiracy-dive
Photo: Public Domain
