Capitol attack panel sees PowerPoint that set out plan for Trump to stage coup

Former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the House select committee investigating the January 6th Capitol attack a PowerPoint recommending then US president Donald Trump to declare a national security emergency in order to return himself to the presidency.

The fact that Mr Meadows was in possession of a PowerPoint the day before the Capitol attack that detailed ways to stage a coup suggests he was at least aware of efforts by Mr Trump and his allies to stop Joe Biden’s certification from taking place on January 6th.

The PowerPoint, titled Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 Jan, made several recommendations for Mr Trump to pursue in order to retain the presidency for a second term on the basis of lies and debunked conspiracies about widespread election fraud.

Mr Meadows turned over a version of the PowerPoint presentation that he received in an email and spanned 38 pages, according to a source familiar with the matter.

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The Guardian reviewed a second, 36-page version of the PowerPoint marked for dissemination with January 5th metadata, which had some differences with what the select committee received. But the title of the PowerPoint and its recommendations remained the same, the source said.

Senators and members of Congress should first be briefed about foreign interference, the PowerPoint said, at which point Mr Trump could declare a national emergency, declare all electronic voting invalid, and ask Congress to agree on a constitutionally acceptable remedy.

The PowerPoint also outlined three options for then vice-president Mike Pence to abuse his largely ceremonial role at the joint session of Congress on January 6th, when Joe Biden was to be certified president, and unilaterally return Mr Trump to the White House.

Three options

Pence could pursue one of three options, the PowerPoint said: seat Mr Trump slates of electors over the objections of Democrats in key states, reject the Biden slates of electors, or delay the certification to allow for a “vetting” and counting of only “legal paper ballots”.

The final option for Mr Pence is similar to an option that was simultaneously being advanced on January 4th and 5th by Trump lieutenants – led by lawyers Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, as well as Trump strategist Steve Bannon – working from the Willard hotel in Washington DC.

The Guardian revealed last week that sometime between the late evening of January 5th and the early hours of January 6th, after Mr Pence declined to go ahead with such plans, Mr Trump then pressed his lieutenants about how to stop Mr Biden’s certification from taking place entirely.

The recommendations in the PowerPoint for both Trump and Pence were based on wild and unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, including that “the Chinese systematically gained control over our election system” in eight key battleground states.

The then acting attorney general, Jeff Rosen, and his predecessor, Bill Barr, who had both been appointed by Mr Trump, by January 5th had already determined that there was no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the outcome of the 2020 election.

House investigators said that they became aware of the PowerPoint after it surfaced in more than 6,000 documents Mr Meadows turned over to the select committee. The PowerPoint was to be presented “on the Hill”, a reference to Congress, the panel said.

The PowerPoint was presented on January 4th to a number of Republican senators and members of Congress, the source said. Mr Trump’s lawyers working at the Willard hotel were not shown the presentation, according to a source familiar with the matter.

But the select committee said they did find in the materials turned over by Mr Meadows, his text messages with a member of Congress, who told Mr Meadows about a “highly controversial” plan to send slates of electors for Mr Trump to the joint session of Congress.

Mr Meadows replied: “I love it.”

Mr Trump’s former White House chief of staff had turned over the materials to the select committee until the co-operation deal broke down on Tuesday, when Mr Meadows’ attorney, Terwilliger, abruptly told House investigators that Meadows would no longer help the investigation.

The select committee announced on Wednesday that in response, it would refer Meadows for criminal prosecution for defying a subpoena. The chairman of the select committee, Bennie Thompson, said the vote to hold Meadows in contempt of Congress would come next week.

“The select committee will meet next week to advance a report recommending that the House cite Mr Meadows for contempt of Congress and refer him to the Department of Justice for prosecution,” Mr Thompson said in a statement. – Guardian