UNITED STATES: Despite the confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory by the electoral college, Donald Trump continues his improbable quest to overturn the verdict of the polls
With less than a month from the end of his mandate, he is considering everything to overturn the election. Despite the vote of the electoral college which formalized the victory of Joe Biden , and more than 50 defeats in court and two rejections by the Supreme Court , Donald Trump refuses to surrender. According to US media, the tenant of the White House asked questions during a meeting on Friday about the possibility of instituting martial law to organize a new ballot or appointing controversial lawyer Sidney Powell as special prosecutor. While unlikely in practice, these discussions would have alarmed senior US officials.
Establish martial law
Pardoned by Donald Trump, his ex-adviser Michael Flynn was present at the White House on Friday evening, according to the New York Times . For several weeks, the former general has been suggesting the introduction of martial law to organize a new ballot in several states, an idea described as “completely crazy” by a senior American official in early December. According to the Times , Donald Trump “asked a question” about this possibility before his advisers swept the idea aside. Saturday, the American president denied, assuring that it was about a “false information”.
#WeThePeople @SidneyPowell1 @LLinWood @DanScavino @LouDobbs @MariaBartiromo @marklevinshow @lofly727
Freedom never kneels except for God 🙏🇺🇸https://t.co/Vrn3UeyDoF
— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) December 1, 2020
Martial law has not been used by the federal government since World War II. According to a study by the legal think tank Brennan Center for Justice, published in August, Donald Trump would need the agreement of Congress to implement it. “That will not happen”, anticipated Sunday, on the CNN channel, the Republican senator Mitt Romney, for whom “all this is going nowhere”.
Appoint a special prosecutor
Sidney Powell, a lawyer who represented Donald Trump’s campaign before being sidelined after gross mistakes, was also present at the meeting. The US president has reportedly raised the possibility of appointing her as special prosecutor in order to give her full powers to investigate the so-called electoral fraud. On Monday, Justice Minister Bill Barr, who will step down after Christmas, distanced himself from the US president: “If I thought it was necessary to have a special prosecutor, I would appoint one and I didn’t.” made. I said that there was not enough fraud to affect the election and I stand by it ”.
Seize voting machines by decree
Donald Trump would also have raised, according to Axios, the possibility of a presidential decree to order the seizure, for examination, of the voting machines. Sidney Powell has been relaying for weeks a discredited conspiracy theory that Dominion’s voting machines are linked to Venezuela and Hugo Chavez, and that an “algorithm” has changed Trump votes in favour of Joe Biden.
New appeal to the Supreme Court
On Sunday, Donald Trump’s lawyers filed a new appeal with the Supreme Court, asking it to block the voters assigned by Pennsylvania. But after two rejections by the highest court before the vote of the electoral college, it appears even more unlikely that the Supreme Court will intervene. For Donald Trump, the clock is ticking: the US Congress must formalize the results and Joe Biden’s victory on January 6th.
