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While Trump may have lusted at the thought that he could perhaps just arrive at the Capitol and complete his coup out of sheer force of will on Jan. 6th with his mob at his heels, others knew that it would take more planning than that. And the slate of fake electoral college elector certificates is evidence of his team’s taking a serious approach to this prospect. How were they to come into play that day?
This prompts a key question that has not been asked publicly in the January 6 Committee hearings thus far:
How did Trump intend to complete his plan to stay in power once he reached the Capitol?
We know about the weeks of setup and the catalyst: his speech that started the insurrection. We also see the finish line where Trump retains his presidency. It’s time to lay out all the dots in between and ponder how they might have been meant to connect.
Did Trump have the fake elector documents with him in the SUV after his speech at the Ellipse? Is that why Trump argued with and even grabbed the Secret Service agent at the wheel of the SUV to force him to go to the Capitol?
Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson is known to have been asked to take fake Wisconsin elector documents by hand to Mike Pence, but the Vice President’s team rebuffed that idea. Were those documents instead given to Trump, along with all others from other states, when it became clear that Pence wouldn’t deliver the coup?
When the actual Secret Service agents in the presidential SUV that day testify under oath to the Jan. 6 Committee, they need to be asked if Trump had brought anything into the vehicle that could’ve contained those documents.
It all makes sense, because the path into the Capitol was cleared out for him by the Oath Keepers.
In an article by Spencer S. Hsu in the Washington Post on April 1, 2021, the realtime Jan. 6 coordination of the Oath Keepers is laid bare. A message sent throughout “DC Ops 1” which included “regional leaders from several states” provided a call to action indicating a move to the rear of the Capitol after the front had been breached. Here’s the link to the full article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/oath-keepers-calls-capitol-riot/2021/04/01/1b48aad4-9338-11eb-a74e-1f4cf89fd948_story.htmla
In this excerpt, Oath Keeper founder and former leader Stewart Rhodes redirected some of their trained fighters away from the mob on the west side. Then after a call with current leader of the Oath Keepers, Kelly Meggs, it was Meggs who led a new incursion into the rear of the Capitol building.
They “have taken ground at the capital[.] We need to regroup any members who are not on mission,” the message said moments after the mob at 2:13 p.m. smashed its way into the Capitol from its West Front.
Prosecutors have also alleged that Meggs and Rhodes spoke for 97 seconds about nine minutes before Meggs helped lead a file of Oath Keepers in helmets and camouflage gear to force entry into the building through broken rotunda doors on the east side around 2:41 p.m.
Was this timing in essence using the storming of the west side as a diversion, so the east side could be breached without the massive mob?
If Trump had gone to the Capitol his SUV would’ve had to stay above ground. The President is not allowed on Capitol grounds unless invited by Congress and likely couldn’t use the underground garage. His SUV may have had to use a west-side access point where the fences and barricades were already breached, then drive around to the east side. That is assuming that one of the other entrances wasn’t staffed with a complicit guard in on the plan.
Were the Oath Keepers meant to be the tip of the spear for Trump’s Capitol entrance and subsequent push into the House chambers? If so, here’s where it gets even more interesting.
By the time Trump would’ve gotten there, Vice President Pence would’ve already been whisked out of his initial hiding place, his office adjacent to the Senate Chambers, and down towards the garage below.
That part of this hypothetical plan went as conceived. There was an RV waiting for Pence staffed with Secret Service men. But Pence didn’t want to get in, knowing that if he left the premises he might be unable to fulfill his roll as President of the Senate, the man who would certify the electoral college vote. Or…worse things could happen.
This points to another thread of Secret Service text messages that would be very valuable - or damning. Was the driver, someone Pence had not yet established a sense of trust with, tasked with insisting on total evacuation as soon as the SUV door closed?
Pence decided to eliminate that possibility, remaining outside the vehicle.
If Pence had left, then the roll of certifying the election would go to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley as the designated Senate President Pro Tempore. Chillingly, this is something that Grassley mentioned the day before, Jan. 5th.
Was he part of the coup endgame? If Grassley was the man with the gavel later that afternoon on the 6th, and Trump arrived at the House floor ready with his stack of fake elector documents (and with Oath Keepers just outside, standing by), might they be officially received?
There had to be some plausible vehicle for the coup process. It needed to seem official so that GOP lawyers could site some tenuous precedent that Fox News viewers could latch onto as their most potent batch of new talking points ever. They would be needed to provide the echo chamber necessary to drown out all logic in the public arena, particularly if things took days to be resolved.
The most legitimate-looking means of completing the coup was to have neither candidate reach the 270 electoral vote threshold, the minimum required for earning the presidency. This would trigger a procedure where the House would confirm the new President-elect. But it wouldn’t be all House members casting their votes; only one House member per state would vote. With the Republican caucus controlling more states than Democrats, Trump would get his ill-gotten reelection if all GOP state representatives acted in their traditional lockstep support.
So rather than Grassley claiming that the fake elector votes supplanted the legitimate ones, he only needed to declare that these duel slates of elector certificates presented a conflict that must be investigated, so neither batch could be counted that day. That would temporarily decrease Biden’s tally to below that 270-vote threshold.
If Grassley set the investigation completion date for a week or so, this delaying tactic could serve up Trump’s end run, taken from a play by that other GOP President this century.
Remember George W. Bush’s lawsuit to prematurely end the 2000 election based on depriving W of a smooth transition of power? Would Trump’s team claim he was similarly deprived of his rightful reelection after the investigation did actually start? That delay for an investigation, regardless of outcome, could put America’s future in the hands of SCOTUS, conveniently packed in Trump’s favor. In this scenario they would have the final authority on requiring the House’s 50-state vote.
That seems the most likely path to power for Trump. That would be more plausible than Grassley standing there, with Trump at his side on January 6th, happily accepting the new elector vote certificates and giving Trump his instant gratification. Grassley could also declare the investigation would take too long and simply nullify the electoral votes from the seven states in question on pragmatic grounds, referencing the 2000 election. That might save a couple of steps, but that path lacks any nod to actual democracy.
Was one of these scenarios the ultimate plan, covered in a facade of legitimacy, that was the means to complete the coup?
If so, Grassley was in the loop. The Jan. 6 Committee needs to ask him to testify, and subpoena him if he doesn’t do so willingly.
This endgame of this plot, as I’ve presented it, is thoroughly farfetched, it’s true. It’s likely to be discounted as a conspiracy theory to be scoffed at. It requires several Secret Service members to be in on the conspiracy within both Trump’s and Pence’s teams. And judging by their willingness to put careers on the line by deleting texts known by every agent to be required for preservation, there may have been wrist talkers in on things.
But before you give these ideas the raspberry, remember how Trump’s brain works. Having already pushed the limits of his power far beyond its rational boundaries with little resistance over nearly four years, this scenario would fit right into Trump’s MO. Some in his circle would’ve advised him that something like this just might work, and Trump only listens to those who paint every opportunity in its most extreme way, where Trump would benefit the most.
So let’s urge the Jan. 6 Committee to start exposing this possibility by asking the right question when occupants of the presidential SUV, known as The Beast, are called to testify under oath:
Did Trump appear to have the fake electoral documents with him that day?
And they must also testify to the contents of those deleted texts that too. How many were aware of Trump’s intent to go the Capitol beforehand? Was there one or more SS agents coordinating with the Oath Keepers whose mission was breaching the east entrance?
When the nature of Trump’s desire to head to the Capitol is fleshed out, then get Grassley under oath, as well as the Secret Service members for Pence’s SUV.
True, this plot could’ve been carried out without Trump actually standing on the House floor. But knowing the man and his constant insistence on being in the spotlight, Trump probably felt that it wouldn’t work without him proudly handing over the fake elector certificates, thus turning the wheels of democracy’s death in person.
If a smoking gun is needed for the former president to be charged with seditious conspiracy, this one could soon be billowing if the J6C’s inquiries point in this direction.