Donald Trump was at his Florida resort on Saturday, starting his post-presidential life while Joe Biden settled in the White House. But in Washington and beyond, the chaos of the 45th president’s last days in office has continued to generate aftershocks.
In another report that shook the land, the New York Times said that Trump planned with a Justice Department official to fire the acting attorney general and then force Georgia’s Republicans to reverse their defeat in that state.
Meanwhile, former acting United States defense secretary Christopher Miller made an extraordinary admission, telling Vanity Fair that when he took office in November, he had three goals: “No military coup, no major war and no troops on the streets ”.
The former special forces officer added: “The ‘no troops on the streets’ thing changed dramatically around 2:30 pm [on 6 January]. So this one is off [the list]. “
That was the day that a mob urged by Trump invaded the United States Capitol, in some cases, allegedly looking for lawmakers to kidnap or kill. More than 100 arrests were made for the riot, which also resulted in a second impeachment of Trump.
A deal between Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate, announced late on Friday, means that Trump’s second trial will begin in the week of February 8. If convicted, an unlikely possibility due to his control over the party, but not impossible, given the statements by Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, Trump will likely be prevented from running for office again.
The president’s persistent and possibly illegal efforts to reverse his defeat for Biden in Georgia have been widely publicized. If he had been successful, he would not have obtained enough electoral votes to nullify his general defeat.
On the day that Trump supporters invaded the Capitol, leaving five dead, 147 Republicans in the House and Senate objected to the results of the electoral college. This attempt to overthrow the election also failed.
Law enforcement and the Pentagon’s response to the Capitol rebellion were questioned in terms of the ease with which security was breached and the time it took to bring the national guard there. A Capitol police officer died after confronting the protesters. Another gained national fame after removing the aggressors from where lawmakers hid.
“We had meetings after meetings,” Miller told Vanity Fair. “We were monitoring. And we thought, ‘Please, God, please, God.’ Then the damn TV appears and everyone converges on my office: [Joint Chiefs of Staff] president [Gen Mark Milley], Secretary of the Army [Ryan] McCarthy, the crew just converges.
“We had already decided that we would need to activate the national guard and that is where the fog and friction come in.”
Kash Patel, a loyal to Trump installed as Miller’s chief of staff – and accused of obstructing Biden’s transition – said: “The mayor of DC finally said, ‘OK, I need more.’ So the Capitol Police … a federal agency and the Secret Service made the request … and we did. And then we started to work. “
Miller called the charges that the Pentagon was slow to respond “complete nonsense” and said, “I have to tell you, I can not wait go to Morro and have these conversations with senators and deputies … I know when something doesn’t smell good and I know when we’re covering our ass. Was there. I know for sure that historians will look … at the actions that we did that day and say, ‘These people played their game together’ ”.
At the time of the inauguration, two weeks later, 25,000 members of the guard were in the capital, an unprecedented display that put central Washington under lockdown. The troops also protected state capitals from pro-Trump protests and conspiracies that did not happen.
As the Capitol riot failed to overturn the election, then, according to the Times, Trump’s alleged plot against acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen also failed.
The report detailed the “stunning silence” among DoJ leaders when they were informed about the actions of Trump and “unpretentious lawyer” Jeffrey Clark to “cast doubt on the results of the elections and reinforce … the legal battles and the pressure on Georgian politicians ”.
Rosen took over as interim attorney general after the resignation of William Barr, who was widely seen as a Trump henchman, but who contradicted the president by saying that there was no evidence of electoral fraud he alleged without foundation, allegations that were repeatedly rejected by the court .
Georgia Republicans, including Governor Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – the recipient of a flattering and intimidating phone call from Trump – also refused to comply with the president’s demands.
According to the Times, DoJ leaders decided that if Rosen were fired and replaced by Clark, they would resign en masse.
“For some,” the paper reported, “the plan brought to mind the so-called Nixon Saturday Night Massacre, where Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his deputy resigned instead of following the president’s order to fire the special prosecutor. that investigated him. “
Nixon resigned before he could be charged with the Watergate scandal. After the attack on the Capitol, Trump refused to resign. Vice President Mike Pence refused to invoke the 25th amendment, which provides for the removal of a president who is considered unfit for office.
Out of office, Trump is vulnerable to investigations at the federal and state levels. On Friday, a Washington Examiner reporter found him “at his regular table at the steakhouse at the Trump international golf club” in West Palm Beach.
“We will do something, but not now,” said the president, his first comment since he left the White House, before an aide “appeared and quickly, but politely, ended the interaction.”
Ezra Cohen, another Trump nominee at the Pentagon, told Vanity Fair: “The president threw us under the bus. And when I say ‘we’, I don’t just mean us political nominees or just us Republicans. He threw America under the bus. It caused a lot of damage to the fabric of this country. “