4 ways Barr went from staunch to critical of Trump 1:25
(CNN) -
A motley crew of ex-advisers, lawyers, elected Republicans, and non-political sycophants have caught the eye of Donald Trump at a time when many of his former government allies have turned away from the increasingly extreme ploy by the president to stay in office.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged that Joe Biden won the election in a Senate speech.
Outgoing Attorney General William Barr has said there was no widespread voter fraud and insisted there was no need for a special counsel to investigate the elections or for the Justice Department to seize the voting machines.
And top White House aides - Mark Meadows and Pat Cipollone - have rejected Trump's consideration of extreme measures to cling to power, often by redirecting their attention to less damaging, but no more plausible ways of preventing Biden from assuming the power. position.
Faced with this resistance, and frustrated by his lack of options, Trump seeks the support of his latest allies, many of whom gathered in the Oval Office late last week for a contentious strategy session.
As the president enters his final weeks in office, these other advisers falsely tell him exactly what he wants to hear: that he can still reverse the election results.
Here is the unofficial team that continues to please a president unable to accept reality.
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ANALYSIS |
Trump runs amok with pardons, veto threats and COVID denial
Sidney Powell
Sidney Powell, an attorney for President Donald Trump, appears at a press conference at the Republican National Committee on lawsuits related to the outcome of the presidential election, on November 19, 2020.
Sidney Powell, a longtime former federal prosecutor and defense attorney, has become one of the top pro-Trump conspirators.
Powell has been in the White House for three of the past four days, including during last Friday's meeting in the Oval Office.
There she and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, confronted Meadows and Cipollone.
At that meeting, which CNN sources said turned into a shouting match, Powell and Flynn floated the idea of appointing Powell as a special counsel or in another official role to investigate voting machines as sources of fraud.
The Trump administration itself has dismissed such accusations.
Powell, for his part, had raised voter fraud in several public appearances and in the news in the weeks after the election.
He has also implicated the companies that owned and operated those machines and even Republican elected officials in a broad scheme to deny Trump's reelection.
It was too much for the Trump campaign, which claimed in a Nov. 21 statement that Powell was acting in his private capacity and not on his legal team.
But weeks later, he appears to be back in the president's grace.
Heated White House meeting included talks about special counsel, martial law and clashes between Trump advisers
Michael flynn
Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, receives pardon from Trump 1:19
Michael Flynn, who was recently pardoned by Trump for pleading guilty to lying to the FBI, has returned to the president's inner circle years after resigning from the White House.
In addition to backing his attorney Powell's case in the White House, Flynn, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and retired Army general, has been pushing the cause of reversing the election last week by extreme means.
On December 1, he tweeted a press release from a pro-Trump group calling for "limited martial law" to hold a "new election."
Flynn explicitly called on Trump to declare martial law on the right-wing cable network Newsmax last week, with one person telling CNN the idea came up in the Oval Office on Friday.
(Trump, for his part, claimed that the martial law discussion was "fake news.")
Flynn has cultivated his own fervent group of supporters since his resignation as national security adviser in February 2017. His claims of persecution by the FBI in the investigation into Russian meddling has fueled the movement to urge Trump to forgive him. .
Flynn has also appeared to co-opt slogans and symbols of the QAnon conspiracy theory, aligning himself with a community of people who believe Trump is taking down a secret cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles within the government.
Rudy giuliani
Rudy Giuliani: Democrats plan not to reduce crime 4:21
One backup resource for Trump has been his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who was seen at the White House on Monday, as was Powell.
Giuliani did not respond to multiple questions from CNN about his visit there, nor his opinion on the installation of Powell or anyone else as a special counsel to investigate the elections.
Interestingly, he has tried to distance Trump and the campaign from Powell's activities.
Giuliani told Newsmax on Monday that Powell is "definitely" not part of Trump's legal team.
The former New York mayor, who served as a strike dog for Trump's re-election, led the legal team's unsuccessful efforts to overturn the results in key states prior to his certification.
He was often the public face of the push for the campaign against Biden's certification of victory, resulting in some embarrassing presentations.
Giuliani has also encouraged the federal government to intervene to aid Trump's efforts.
Last week, sources told CNN, he called Ken Cuccinelli of the Department of Homeland Security and asked if it was possible for that Department to seize the voting machines.
Cuccinelli reportedly responded that doing so was beyond the authority of the government entity.
After Giuliani contracted COVID-19 in early December, he regressed for about a week while recovering in a Washington hospital.
Since then, he has continued to promote conspiracy theories about electoral fraud to the president.
Patrick Byrne
Patrick Byrne and María Butina.
A relatively new player on Trump's advisory roster is Patrick Byrne, the founder of online retailer Overstock.com.
Byrne tweeted about his attendance at Friday's meeting in the Oval Office shortly thereafter, blaming the president's other advisers and telling supporters to trust "just Rudy and Sidney."
Byrne, who resigned from Overstock in 2019 after his comments about the "deep state" triggered a sharp drop in the company's stock price, has not responded to a request for comment from CNN about his participation in the meeting.
But the eccentric businessman has emerged as a defender of debunked conspiracy theories, including allegations of voter fraud announced by the president and Powell.
He said that last month he had "funded a team of hackers and cyber detectives, other people with strange abilities" to investigate the claims.
Byrne previously admitted in a series of interviews that he had an intimate relationship with the accused Russian agent Maria Butina, which lasted from 2015 to 2018, and that he eventually assisted law enforcement in the investigation against her.
Steve Bannon
Among those who advised Trump to appoint a special counsel to investigate the election is Steve Bannon.
The former White House strategist, who is currently under federal indictment for wire fraud and money laundering, claimed that he had told Trump himself.
"As I strongly recommended to the President, we need an immediately appointed special prosecutor - a special prosecutor only on electoral fraud and vote fraud - they are two different things, electoral fraud and vote fraud - he must do that immediately," Bannon said during a live broadcast with conservative pastors, Sunday night.
Bannon's popularity has fallen since he was the first executive director of the 2016 Trump campaign and later the White House chief strategist.
Since leaving the administration in August 2017, he has struggled to support populist political movements in Europe and elsewhere.
He fell from grace following the revelation that he spoke extensively with journalist Michael Wolff, but regained his position after starting a pro-Trump podcast on the investigation and impeachment of the president.
Bannon also joined a media company with an exiled Chinese businessman, Guo Wengui.
It was on Guo's yacht that federal authorities arrested him in August for his involvement in the We Build the Wall fundraising operation, which prosecutors say was fraudulent.
Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser, was arrested 2:52
Peter navarro
Peter Navarro.
Administration officials say Trump has resorted to consulting his top business adviser, Peter Navarro, on allegations of voter fraud.
Navarro has used his White House position to support baseless allegations of voter fraud.
“What we are looking for here are verifiable ballots, certifiable ballots, and an investigation into an ever-increasing number of allegations of fraud under affidavits signed by witnesses, and my own opinion looking at this election, we have what in a sense appears to be a flawless deception, ”Navarro said in a Nov. 13 appearance on Fox Business.
Last week, Navarro published his own report "Immaculate Deception," currently hosted on Steve Bannon's podcast website.
The 30-page document alleges "electoral irregularities", but does not demonstrate widespread fraud.
Navarro appeared on Bannon's podcast to discuss the issue, saying that he had been personally phoning lawmakers in six states where Trump and his team still hope to overturn the results.
"There are many traditional Republicans who do not want to jump on the Trump train.
I cannot explain what is going on with these state legislators, except to say that they do not embrace economic nationalism and have turned their back on the president, "Navarro said.
Mo Brooks and members of the Freedom Caucus
Representative Mo Brooks.
If there is a long shot left that Trump creates electoral damage, it is in Congress.
On January 6, both houses are expected to ratify the Electoral College results, but those loyal to the president hope to maintain their position.
Leading the effort is Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, who also headed a letter last week to Congressional leaders urging hearings on the voter fraud allegations.
Brooks and a contingent that included Representatives Jim Jordan, Matt Gaetz and Louie Gohmert met with Trump Monday at the White House to discuss the option, which is almost certain to fail, given the Democratic majority in the House and the desire of the Republican Party leadership in the Senate to avoid a tie on the results.
Legislators left their meeting confident that there was a contingent of House and Senate Republicans who would join the effort and spark a marathon plenary debate on Jan.6 that would spread the next day.
"I think we have several senators and the question is not yes, but how many," Brooks said.
Tommy Tuberville, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn
The words of a trio of incoming Republican lawmakers suggest that loyalty to Trump and his baseless claims of a rigged election will remain part of the conversation on Capitol Hill even after Biden's inauguration.
While most of the devotion to Trump's lost cause is in the House Republican conference, Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said he will not rule out joining the effort to block ratification of Biden's victory.
They will see what lies ahead.
They have been reading about this in the House.
We will have to do it in the Senate, ”Tuberville said in captured video of the incoming senator's presentation in neighboring Georgia for the Senate runoff elections in that state.
Another new Trump ally in the new Congress will be elected Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who gained notoriety prior to her election for spreading conspiracy theories online.
Since winning his own election in a heavily Republican district, Greene has made unsubstantiated claims that the Georgia presidential election, which Biden won, was stolen.
That makes her a perfect fit with the more pro-Trump faction in the Republican House conference.
Greene attended Monday's meeting at the White House with Brooks and other members of the Freedom legislative group.
And on Monday, North Carolina Representative-Elect Madison Cawthorn said Monday that he would be among the House members who would contest the election results.
Donald Trump 2020 United States elections
