Our View: Democracy: Martial law order scary, threatening - Mankato Free Press
Fake ballots, storming the Capitol, legal memos, strong-arm calls from the president to election officials and now a document showing preparations for martial law — they all build the case for how close the United States came last year to a coup and the loss of democracy.
Politico last Friday reported it had obtained a draft executive order, without President Donald Trump’s signature, that late last year directed the military to seize election machines. Jan. 6 Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson confirmed the committee had the document on “Face the Nation” and said it would be investigating the activities surrounding it.
The order called for the U.S. military to seize voting machines in battleground states where Trump falsely claimed an international conspiracy to rig the election. The order called for appointing a special counsel and to “institute all criminal and civil proceedings as appropriate based on the evidence collected.”
An NPR report quoted Thompson on “Face the Nation” Sunday, saying: “We have information that between the Department of Justice, a plan was put forward to potentially seize voting machines in the country and utilize Department of Defense assets to make that happen.”
The image of U.S. military busting down doors to city halls across America to seize certified voting machines seems like a scene out of the Third World or George Orwell’s Oceania.
The Politico story and confirmation by the committee shows the U.S. would have been in a coup-like position, tying up voting machines and leaving the final count to whoever had the machines. And that would have been the Trump administration.
CNN reported the document may have been one the Trump’s lawyers were trying to prevent from being released through their petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep the National Archives from releasing the documents to the committee. The Supreme Court denied the request for secrecy and the documents have been released to the Jan. 6 committee.
Court documents filed in the case by the National Archive also hint at the existence of the document and the Trump’s administration’s effort to keep it secret. The National Archives said one of the documents the Trump team had requested it keep secret was “a draft Executive Order on the topic of election integrity.”
Previous CNN reporting referenced a White House meeting where the idea of martial law was floated that called for the federal agents seizing voting machines, but ultimately rejected when White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows strongly objected.
Republicans in Congress and other leaders continue their silence as the evidence of a Trump coup attempt becomes increasingly clear. In a recent Quinnipiac poll, nearly 60% of Americans believe “democracy is in danger of collapse.”
There’s never been a more serious time in recent history for Americans to rally and call on their representatives in Congress to get to the bottom of the Jan. 6 coup attempt and related events and prevent it from happening again.
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source: https://www.mankatofreepress.com/opinion/editorials/our-view-democracy-martial-law-order-scary-threatening/article_ea380e94-7e0f-11ec-bd89-0bdbf76198c4.html
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