According to The New York Times, former President Donald Trump instructed his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to contact the Department of Homeland Security to see whether they could lawfully take control of voting equipment in crucial states in December 2020, six weeks after the presidential election.
According to the New York Times, Giuliani phoned Kenneth Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security, who informed him he didn’t have the power to do so.
People in Trump’s circle have already authored a draught executive order dated December 2020 that discussed employing the Pentagon to seize equipment, according to Insider.
The House select committee probing the January 6 insurgency recently received a copy of the draught order.
Proposals to use other government agencies were already known, according to The Fresh York Times, but new details from three anonymous people — either informed on the events by participants or with personal knowledge of the events – reveal which plans Trump contemplated and lobbied for.
The Times reported that Trump asked Giuliani to contact DHS after rejecting a proposal to use the Pentagon to seize the machines in order to look for evidence of alleged voter fraud that Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel, claimed to have discovered, according to the Times. Waldron first mentioned the plan to former Trump adviser Michael Flynn.
According to the New York Times, Trump reportedly discussed the possibility of using the Justice Department to confiscate voting equipment with former Attorney General William Barr. According to the New York Times, Barr swiftly batted down the notion, effectively informing Trump that there were no probable grounds to support the action.
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According to the New York Times, the former president even encouraged politicians in Michigan and Pennsylvania to employ local law enforcement to confiscate computers.