Enlarge image
Donald Trump at a campaign event on January 15, 2022
Photo:
CARLOS BARRIA / REUTERS
Following Donald Trump's election defeat in November 2020, the White House reportedly drafted a presidential decree ordering the top US military officer to seize all voting machines in the country. The document published by the National Archives was never signed, the news portal "Politico" reported on Friday. It shows the extreme measures Trump was willing to take to remain in power despite his defeat in the presidential election.
“Effective immediately, the Department of Defense must seize, collect, secure and analyze all machinery, equipment, electronically stored information” about the election,” the three-page document says, according to Politico.
It is one of more than 750 documents handed over to the House of Representatives investigative committee investigating the storming of the US Capitol.
The draft order, dated December 16, 2020, also provides for the appointment of a public prosecutor who should bring charges against any allegation of fraud in connection with the confiscated voting machines.
The measure is justified with a number of conspiracy fantasies - which have been refuted several times - according to which the voting machines had been manipulated.
It is unclear who wrote the draft.
Trump is still spreading the unsupported claim that massive election fraud robbed him of a second term.
He took legal action against the release of the documents.
He suffered a clear legal defeat in the Supreme Court this week.
The documents include, among other things, memos to his staff, emails and lists of people who visited or called him on January 6, 2021, and notes made during those conversations.
Among other things, the investigative committee wants to use the documents to uncover the exact background to the attack on the Capitol.
cop/AFP
