The push by Donald Trump advisors to seize voting machines also extended to utilizing National Guard troops, according to a report by The New York Times magazine.
The report detailed efforts by former Trump National Security Mike Flynn to push Trump’s “big lie” of election fraud that incited the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Robert Draper on a December 18, 2020 meeting at the White House with Flynn, Overstock.com founder Peter Byrne, and lawyer Sidney Powell.
“The group found their way into the Oval Office with the help of several eager-to-please White House staff members, including Garrett Ziegler, an aide to the Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro. (Navarro had released his own extensive, and swiftly debunked, report on election fraud the day before and was in the midst of lobbying Republican members of Congress to overturn the 2020 results.) Byrne, Flynn and Powell then made their case directly to the president about the options he had at his disposal, including Flynn’s suggested use of the National Guard and U.S. marshals,” Draper reported.
READ: Jared Kushner thought firing Mike Flynn was ‘the biggest mistake we ever made’: report
Previous reports have detailed efforts to use the Department of Justice, Pentagon, and Department to Homeland Security to seize the voting machines.
“According to Byrne, Powell handed Trump a packet that included previous executive orders issued by President Barack Obama and by Trump that the group believed established a precedent for a new executive order, one that would use supposed foreign interference in the election as a justification for deploying the military,” Draper reported. “In this operation, Byrne added, Flynn could serve as Trump’s ‘field marshal.'”
A field marshal is a military rank senior to generals that has not been used by any branch of the United States military.
Read the full report.
Image: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead