(Photo by Ron Sachs – Pool/Getty Images)
President Trump had quite a weekend hunkered down at the White House with his most trusted advisers. On Friday night, Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, and that weird Overstock dude Patrick Byrne all trooped into the Oval Office to help Trump plan his next next steps. Was the My Pillow guy at a Christmas party, or what?
Options discussed include declaring martial law, seizing voting machines, and appointing Powell as Special Counsel to investigate her claims of rampant fraud. Or, as it’s known colloquially, a coup.
But coup-ing is hard. First you have all those annoying Deep State advisors telling you stuff like, “Sir, that’s totally against the law.” As the New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pushed back during the loud and contentious meeting.
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.
Even Ken Cuccinelli, the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, told Giuliani that DHS has no authority to march in and unilaterally seize voting machines for Powell’s discredited witnesses to take apart looking for evidence of hacking. Yes, the same Ken Cuccinelli who tried to ban oral and anal sex as Virginia’s Attorney General. So if that guy says the government doesn’t have the power to do something, you can bet it’s pretty far outside the Overton Window.
But aside from the blatant illegality of snatching up voting machines by fiat or perhaps via executive order, there’s the minor matter of how the president and his allies think this might work.
Do they plan to send in the army? Because Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville just put out a statement confirming that “there is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
Homeland Security probably has the manpower, but Cucinelli already said they were out.
So, exactly who is going to go into hundreds of counties in Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Nevada — because you know they don’t care about the machines in Mississippi or Maryland — and snatch up the tabulation equipment?
And after the dragnet, where are they going to put thousands of units of bulky equipment to ensure a chain of custody?
But even assuming Trump manages to effectuate this complicated maneuver … then what? Who’s going to examine the machines, and when? And after they dust the machines for Hugo Chávez’s fingerprints, exactly what will they be looking for? How will the tabulating devices prove anything in the absence of the actual, paper ballots?
And, not for nothing, but the weekend between Christmas and New Years isn’t an ideal time to launch a major bureaucratic undertaking. But there’s probably a federal judge or two willing to interrupt her figgy pudding to sign off on an emergency injunction, and, what the hell, make it nationwide, right? Because it’s Christmas, and we’re all feeling generous.
Even Bill Barr.
Oh, there’s going to be a mean tweet in the AG’s stocking! In fact, the president’s elite constitutional lawyer already made a special delivery.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! And thankfully, this dreadful year is almost over.
Trump Weighed Naming Election Conspiracy Theorist as Special Counsel [NYT]
Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.