Unsigned Trump order told Pentagon to seize voting machines: Politico
WASHINGTON: A draft executive order written by Donald
Trump's White House in the weeks after his defeat in the 2020 election directed
the nation's top military leader to seize voting machines, a report said Friday
(Jan 21).
The explosive document, released by the National Archives
and obtained by Politico, highlights the extreme measures Trump may have been
willing to take to cling to power against the will of voters who picked Joe
Biden to be their next president.
Dated Dec 16 2020, the order sought to appoint a special
counsel to bring charges on any fraud allegations that arose from the seizures.
But it was never signed.
It is among 750-plus records turned over to the House of
Representatives select committee investigating the 2021 Capitol assault after
the Supreme Court rejected Trump's appeal to block their release.
"Effective immediately, the Secretary of Defense shall
seize, collect, retain and analyse all machines, equipment, electronically
stored information, and material records required for retention," says the
three-page draft.
The document reprises many of the debunked conspiracy
theories about hacked voting machines that were pushed by figures in Trump's
orbit now being targeted by congressional investigators, including right-wing
attorney Sidney Powell.
She falsely told reporters the election had been targeted by
"communist money through Venezuela, Cuba, and likely China".
Powell and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani led
unsuccessful efforts to have courts throw out election results in key swing
states in the weeks after Trump's defeat.
The ex-president and his allies spent months pressing false
claims of widespread fraud, despite experts in his own government affirming
that it was the most secure vote in US history.
The claims were also rejected by Trump-appointed attorney
general Bill Barr, and Trump was eventually impeached for inciting the attack
on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
The draft order bears similarities with a plot outlined in a
Powerpoint presentation to keep Trump in office that former White House chief
of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the select committee last year.
That document envisaged US Marshals seizing ballots for a
50-state hand recount.
The draft executive order that emerged Friday focuses specifically on touchscreen ballot-marking devices made by Dominion that were used in Georgia, where a hand recount and machine recount affirmed Biden's win.
It repeats false allegations about Dominion being
"owned or heavily controlled and influenced by foreign agents, countries,
and interests" and alleging that its machines are deliberately designed to
create "systemic fraud".
Powell and Giuliani are fighting billion-dollar defamation
lawsuits from Dominion and Smartmatic, another voting machine company.
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