John Eastman, a lawyer working for Trump who engineered the plan to have Pence overturn the election, worked relentlessly toward that goal. Greg Jacob, the Vice-President’s legal counsel, said this in an email about those efforts while the violent attack was underway: “Thanks to your bullshit we are now under siege.” That is where bullshit leads.
A federal conservative judge, Judge David O. Carter, of the California District Court, Central District of California, evaluated the facts and said this about the effort of Trump and Eastman to get around the constitution: President Trump’s efforts to pressure Mike Pence to act illegally by refusing to count electoral votes likely violated 2 Federal criminal statutes and also said this:
“If Dr. Eastman and President Trump’s plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution. If the country does not commit to investigating and pursuing accountability for those responsible, the Court fears January 6 will repeat itself.”
As Elizabeth Cheney said, “Every American should read what this federal judge has written.” The same judge, David Carter, issued another decision the week of the Capitol Assault hearings in Washington, where he said John Eastman and other Trump lawyers knew they had little chance of being successful with their legal arguments in court, but they relied on those arguments anyway “to overturn a democratic election.”
Later Eastman realized that what he had done might get him in trouble with the law and advised Giuliani that perhaps he should get a pardon, proving that he too was at home in the swamp that Trump claimed to be draining.
While Congress was under attack on January 6th Trump’s legal team worked in the Willard Hotel War room where they continued the work to halt the counting of the electoral votes.
On the evening of January 5, President Trump’s close advisor, Steve Bannon said this in his podcast: “Just understand this–All hell is going to break lose tomorrow.” How did Bannon know this? He had been watching the social media that had been unleashed by Trump’s supporters and he knew what was going to happen because it had been planned. It was not a spontaneous action. It was premeditated.
Bannon knew what was happening and did not hold back.
It is clear what Trump was up to. He was upto–nothing less than the disruption of the lawful election of the President for his own benefit. What amazes me is the extent to which millions of Americans have acquiesced to this attack on a fundamental aspect of democratic elections, namely that after the election there must be a peaceful transfer of power to the one who won the election.