Seven Days in May<\/em>, about a military coup to overthrow the President.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s December 28th, 2021. We are just now getting a better understanding of what was really planned in that Oval Office meeting. We know that dramatic changes in the leadership of the Departments of Justice and Defense were aimed at \u201csoftening them up\u201d for a potential revolt. And we know that the Trump campaign was building a \u201cmob\u201d for January 6th, one that would be directed to march on the Capitol Building. There was a \u201ccoup headquarters\u201d, led by Steve Bannon in the Willard Hotel. A central figure, former General Michael Flynn, had his brother, also a General assigned to the Pentagon, in a key decision-making role. And we all know what happened after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Real Plan<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
John Eastman developed the legal strategy to overturn the election, and even published it in a PowerPoint presentation.\u00a0\u00a0Several United States Congressmen and Senators were \u201cin\u201d on the plan, to aid in the \u201clegal\u201d overturn of the election results.\u00a0\u00a0In short, what seemed like \u201cfarcical\u201d story of White House desperation in December, 2020, was really part of a much more sinister plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So this is a \u201cre-run\u201d of last year\u2019s story. There is a bit of literary license: some of the characters weren\u2019t physically in the office. They called into the meeting. But a year later, we are just learning how close to a real coup we came. And it\u2019s not over. Thirty million Americans still believe that President Joseph Biden is \u201cillegitimate\u201d. That hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seven Days in December<\/h2>\n\n\n\nThe Scene<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The meeting was on Friday, December 18th<\/sup>, 2020 in the Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House, Washington, DC. Snow was on the ground outside the ballistic windows, and Christmas lights on the trees beyond the fencing. The faint echo of a madrigal choir was heard, singing in the main lobby of the West Wing, in front of the massive Christmas tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe President was sitting behind the large oaken desk made from the timbers of the British Ship HMS<\/em>Resolute, <\/em>and given as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria. Arranged in front of the desk were armless straight-backed chairs, designed to accentuate the lesser status of those sitting in front of the President. The President himself was hunched uncomfortably in his $5000 Gunlocke-Washington <\/em>chair behind the imposing desk, not interested in the Christmas activities or much of anything else. He was angry, depressed, and desperate.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGeneral Flynn<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In the straight-backed chairs were three subordinates. The first, was retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. Flynn was one of the first \u201chigh profile\u201d supporters of the President six years ago. He had a storied career: rising to prominence in the Army, and becoming Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency under a previous Administration. But Flynn\u2019s unwillingness to adhere to policy led to charges of insubordination; he was fired from his post and after thirty-three years forcibly retired from the Army he loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He then went on a quest for fortune, working as an intelligence consultant for several corporations. But the real money was in advising foreign nations about US strategy, and ultimately lobbying for them with the US government. Flynn had multiple links to the Russian government earning hundred of thousands of dollars. But the biggest money came from Turkey, where Flynn\u2019s skills and classified knowledge were used to attack Turkish government opponents in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
National Security Advisor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
With the success of Donald Trump\u2019s candidacy for President, Flynn latched on as a senior foreign policy advisor. What he didn\u2019t advice Trump was his personal links to Russia and Turkey. And when Trump surprisingly won the election of 2016, Flynn became National Security Advisor, despite several warnings to Trump from the Obama Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to Trump\u2019s inauguration, Flynn had conversations with the Russian Ambassador, encouraging him to ignore the Obama Administration actions. FBI agents interviewed him about the multiple phone conversations. Flynn lied to them, in spite of knowing that the agents had direct transcripts of the calls. Why did Flynn lie knowing they already had the calls? Perhaps it was simply hubris: thinking that the FBI would never charge a serving National Security Advisor. Or, perhaps it was the misguided view that the FBI \u201cwas on his side\u201d, and would overlook the felony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flynn also lied to the Vice President and other senior White House officials. He was forced to resign, and ultimately charged with lying to Federal agents. He twice pled guilty to the charges, and made a deal with prosecutors to help with further investigations of the Trump campaign. But Flynn ultimately reneged on the deal, and after years of legal maneuvering, was pardoned by President Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lawyers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Also in the straight-backed chairs were two attorneys. The first, Sidney Powell, was Flynn\u2019s current legal counsel. She was a conspiracy theorist, who recently was fired from Trump\u2019s post-election legal team for claiming that long-dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez rigged the 2020 election. She also told Georgia voters not to show up for the January 5th<\/sup> Senate election, since she believed the entire election system was corrupt. Powell was the reason for Flynn\u2019s change of heart with Federal Prosecutors. Rumor had it that she was so sure of a Presidential pardon that she persuaded Flynn to remain silent about other Administration and campaign actions. She was right.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe other attorney was former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He represents the President in ongoing legal actions to invalidate the 2020 election results, claiming widespread election fraud. But he has been met with a long series of court defeats, accompanied by public relations disasters. This included Giuliani holding a press conference in the parking lot of a sex shop, bringing a seemingly drunk witness to a hearing, and hair dye streaking down the side of his face while speaking to the press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Change the Votes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Their conversation was simple: how to overturn the legal results of the 2020 election. While Biden won by over six million votes in the popular election, the margin in the Electoral College was much narrower. A change of a mere 45,050 votes in three key states; Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, would reverse the Electoral College and result in a tie. That tie would put the decision to the House of Representatives, where voting by one vote per state, they would re-elect the President. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump campaign challenged the vote count in each of those states. Georgia recounted their votes three times, including a literal hand count of each ballot. In Wisconsin, the Trump campaign paid three million dollars to recount votes in two key Democratic counties. And in Arizona, where Republicans controlled all of the election counting mechanisms, re-counts and political pressure didn\u2019t change the outcome. The votes as they were cast in November, elected Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And of the over fifty court actions filed, none were successful in changing the outcome. All were appealed, and a few reached the US Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court denied them all. Even Trump\u2019s own appointees on the Court refused to hear them. There seemed to be no way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump\u2019s Card<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
But Trump still had one last card to play. 74 million voters chose Trump in the 2020 election, the second most votes ever earned. And of those 74 million, a majority believes that Trump\u2019s election defeat was as a result of corruption. That means that almost 40 million Americans believe that the 2020 election was stolen, and many were waiting for Trump\u2019s word to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flynn had a plan to delay the Electoral College results. He advised the President to declare an \u201cinsurrection\u201d due to election fraud in the three critical states, and use the military to seize the voting machines. Then there could be a \u201cdo-over\u201d, where the only form of voting would be through the machines. The mail-in vote, which overwhelmingly went to Biden, would be wiped out, ostensibly in the name of \u201celection security\u201d. And of course the outcome would be different: if only election day polling is allowed, in all likelihood Trump would win the margins needed to take the Electoral College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Insurrection<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
And there was precedent for Flynn\u2019s action. During the Reconstruction Era, Federal troops were stationed in the former Confederate states. Those troops guaranteed the 15th<\/sup> Amendment right of the freed slaves to vote, as well as preventing unrepentant Confederates from participating in the process. For the ten years after the Civil War, Federal troops in blue patrolled the electoral process. It was only the political deal to end Reconstruction in 1877 that removed the troops that allowed those states to regain control of the voting process. And Federal troops were forbidden to go back into any states again under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So under \u201cPosse Comitatus\u201d how could Flynn propose to send in troops? An even older law, the Insurrection Act of 1807, allows the President to proclaim an \u201cinsurrection\u201d, and then send in Federal troops to control it. The Federal troops would be \u201cauthorized\u201d to both seize the election machinery, and hold a \u201csubstitute\u201d election. And who would lead these troops into the electoral \u201cbattle space\u201d? The recently retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn; recalled to active duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n