Donald Trump (L) jokes with retired Gen. Michael Flynn (Photo: Getty)
During a heated White House meeting Friday, President Donald Trump reportedly inquired about invoking martial law and deploying the military to re-run the election in swing states, after former national security adviser Michael Flynn enthusiastically promoted it.
Trump called the meeting, whose attendees included attorney Sidney Powell and Flynn, to discuss further options to challenging the 2020 general election, even though the electoral college already met earlier this month to affirm the election of President-elect Joe Biden.
Earlier this week, Flynn had suggested that Trump could invoke martial law to overturn the election that he had lost to Biden. Flynn had pushed the idea on the conservative Newsmax channel Thursday.
The former national security adviser said, “He [Trump] could order within the swing states if he wanted to, if he could take military capabilities, and he could place them in those states, and basically re-run an election in each of those states. It’s not unprecedented.”
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“People out there talking about martial law like it’s something we’ve never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times,” Flynn added.
During the meeting, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani questioned whether the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) could seize voting machines for post-election examination. Powell has mainly focused on voting machines.
The meeting included further discussion over whether could appoint Powell as special counsel to investigate officially. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Pat Cipollone aggressively pushed back on the suggestion of naming Powell as special counsel.
One person described the meeting as “ugly” as Powell and Flynn accused others of abandoning the President as he works to overturn the election results.
The president has repeatedly denied claims that he threatened to invoke martial law on Friday.
Trump continues to make baseless allegations of voter fraud in battleground states.
Biden defeated Trump by more than 7 million popular votes. The 50 U.S. states have also confirmed Biden’s 306-232 Electoral College victory.
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