After his defeat in the 2020 elections, Donald Trump allegedly drafted an executive order directing the US’ top military leader to seize voting machines, a report has revealed.
The explosive document, released by the National Archives and obtained by Politico, has revealed the extreme measures Trump may have been willing to take to keep Joe Biden from being declared as the next president.
The three-page draft, dated December 16, 2020, ordered the Secretary of Defense to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention.”
The order also sought to appoint a special counsel to bring charges on any fraud allegations that arose from the seizures, but it was never signed.
It is also unclear as to who drafted the order.
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The draft is part of the 750-plus documents submitted by the National Archives to the House of Representatives select committee investigating the 2021 Capitol insurrection.
The then-president sought to block the release of the documents citing the “executive privilege” doctrine, but the Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected his appeal.
Trump and his allies spent months pushing a false narrative of widespread electoral fraud, despite the government officials rebuffing the charges.
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The claims were also rejected by Trump-appointed attorney general Bill Barr, and Trump was eventually impeached for inciting the attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.
Meanwhile, the probe committee investigating on Thursday invited Ivanka Trump, daughter of Donald Trump, to provide information and participate in a voluntary interview.
Ivanka was a senior White House advisor to her father. The committee wants to ask her about Trump’s actions, or inaction, and his state of mind on January 6, 2021, when hundreds of his supporters stormed the Capitol and temporarily stopped Congress from confirming President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
(With inputs from agencies)
