Trump has options and much more power than most people have any idea of
The end of the road is not the Supreme Court. It’s not December 14, and it’s not even the House and a contingent election. Trump is still The President til Jan 20th.
Watch this space: There’s a possible Sting Op of a major scale
If it pans out, we will need industrial scale popcorn. It is just speculation, but what a blockbuster tale.
Back in September 2018, President Trump made an executive order which was interpreted then in “the Russian collusion” threat, because that was what was on the minds of the commentariat at the time. But it may turn out to be a historic trap sprung against foreign actors and their domestic collaborators. It arms Trump with a process to investigate foreign interference in elections. Given the scale of fraud, in the US of A today, it’s not unthinkable that The Great Reset will instead become the The Great Cleansing of the Deep State. That’s if the servers and voting machines still have evidence of foreign interference in the US election. But watch for signs that EO 13848 is live — because it may send people to jail.
Remember the two 3 star generals who said military intel had captured the CIA servers from Germany, and there may have been deaths involved? It’s like a Tom Clancy novel but bigger, and we get to watch it live,… pieced together through glimpses, hints and whatever was the-most-censored Youtube today!(If it is true).
Let’s hope those servers and machines were not wiped before they could be seized.
If triggered, EO 13848 compels a federal government investigation of possible interference by foreign governments. The report by John Ratcliffe the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) heoretically must be presented within 45 days of the election — which means by Dec 18. Eight days to go.
Six days ago Ratcliffe said: “‘Now, I think one of the things that we did well this election was addressing problems from foreign interference, influence campaigns from other countries that we saw in 2016.” Oh, Holy Dominion, really?
Yesterday Donald Trump said: ““The case has been made, and now we find out what we can do about it,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House. “You’ll see a lot of big things happening over the next couple of days.”
The signs are there
Replay the last month again through the lens of a President armed with an executive order that put the US on an emergency footing two years ago and that hasn’t been retracted. He warned, he knew, that election fraud was coming. In the last four weeks he’s sacked key players across Defense and through the Pentagon and installed outspoken supporters. This is not the act of a man defeated, or a man expecting to be out of office in six weeks time. But it might be the act of a man playing 4 D Chess, planning a strategic disassembly of the biggest threat to the US since the Cold War. (And of course, this is the Christmas Wish of free men everywhere, so keep the skeptical hat on.)
Trump has afterall sworn an Oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Replay his 46 minute “Greatest speech” and hear the legal phrases that mirror the EO words.
“The only conceivable reason why you would block commonsense measures to verify legal eligibility for voting is you are trying to encourage, enable, solicit or carry out fraud.”
As I said at the time. He was solemn and deadly serious; a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, but also man determined to solve it. He was not a businessman doing a deal. Not exaggerating. No gambits.
Note too, the Attorney General would have a major role if the EO is in play — and Barr is rumoured to be resigning. Is Barr unwilling to stand at the helm of this Battleship, but also unwilling to stand in its way? If the EO is triggered, what follows will be historic.
Something is going on: staff are being purged in Defense and Intelligence
No one seems able to explain why there are so many high ranking jobs and advisors being moved.
Since the election Trump has sacked Pentagon and Defense Department Officials and installed loyalists in Senior positions. Biden’s team is being blocked from meeting with Pentagon’s spy agencies. The president fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper weeks ago, and last week fired all members of the Defence Business Board, 11 of 13 of the Defence Policy Board . Trump replaced Esper with Chris Miller who was formerly the director of the National Counterterrorism Centre. This “purging” doesn’t seem like the act of a man on the way out, who’s choices could be replaced in seven weeks time.
On the 11 of November an MSN report suggested the shuffling of top defense officials was probably so that Trump can bring troops home for Christmas as he promised, and which the Dept of Defence had been slowing. But the purges continue. It also could be that President Trump is planning to do something much more ambitious — like fight back against the Deep State, corrupt Democrats and foreign players.
Some wonder, if something this big is going down, why keep it quiet, which is a very fair question. Others suggest that a longer patient game let’s the criminals reveal their hands and the good guys collect more evidence. The more mundane truth may be that Trump et al are still h0ping for a Supreme Court resolution first, or that the DNI report is just not ready yet.
What the EO does and does not do
Section 1: Figuring out if election interference has occurred and reporting on it
Ed Stein of the LawFareBlog point out the EO sets out a process for reporting on “interference” as it relates to “Election Infrastructure” which basically means all the electronic equipment like tabulation and voting machines, transmission lines and also voter databases. There are two reports, each with 45 day deadlines — one for the DNI to report and one after that for the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security.
Section 1 of the order establishes an interagency process for determining whether election interference has occurred. First, the director of national intelligence (DNI) has 45 days to determine—in consultation with appropriate agencies—whether “a foreign government, or any person acting as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign government, has acted with the intent or purpose of interfering in [any election for Federal office].” Second, within 45 days after receiving the DNI’s assessment, the attorney general and secretary of homeland security—in consultation with appropriate agencies—are to send the president and the secretaries of state, defense and the treasury a report evaluating two questions:
(i) the extent to which any foreign interference that targeted election infrastructure materially affected the security or integrity of that infrastructure, the tabulation of votes, or the timely transmission of election results; and
(ii) if any foreign interference involved activities targeting the infrastructure of, or pertaining to, a political organization, campaign, or candidate, the extent to which such activities materially affected the security or integrity of that infrastructure, including by unauthorized access to, disclosure or threatened disclosure of, or alteration or falsification of, information or data.
The directive also requires the report to “identify any material issues of fact with respect to these matters that the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security are unable to evaluate or reach agreement on at the time the report is submitted.”
Section 2 Punishment coming:
The sanctions include ones for foreign people and separate measures against the states involved with White House discretion, rather than automatically triggered sanctions. There is a Section 3 — which gives the White House the choice to take a variety of measures.
Commenter Lance says: The EO’s establish very severe penalties for election interference including asset forfeiture, seizing bank accounts, cutting off all electronic forms of banking, etc. in addition to making Federal Felony crimes. Serious stuff.
Anyone, anywhere, who violated 13848, US or Foreign, can be sanctioned, arrested, tried, convicted and imprisoned. That includes those who hacked voting systems, provided equipment or software, etc and those who participated in the use of such things. Trump set up a trap in 2018 and will soon execute the trap.
On 20 Sep 2018, he [Trump, also] issued E.O. 13849, empowering the US Treasury and State Dept to impose sanctions on Banking, credit, assets, import, etc, including forfeiture, seizure, arrest, prosecution.
Lance: He set a trap 2 years ago.
Chris Miller recently consolidated all US Special Forces under single command. None of them answer to the Pentagon. All of them answer to the Sec. of Defense and he answers to the President.
Mike Adams, Natural News, Nov 2020
Chris Miller, who previously served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, described the changes as “tectonic” and as being pursued to “combat transnational threats.”
But he also said something even more interesting:
“As we implement the President’s orders, we also recognize that transitions and campaigns are fraught with risk and unexpected challenges and opportunities. That is why I am here today to announce that I have directed the special operations civilian leadership to report directly to me instead of through the current bureaucrat channels. This historic step finalizes what Congress has authorized and directed and will put Special Operations Command on par with the military services for the first time.”
Election rigging is also a felony crime under current U.S. law.
We remain under the National Emergency declared in 2018. Those forces can be deployed instantly by Presidential Direction without conference with anyone. Let that sink in. Be patient. It isn’t over until Noon on 20 Jan 2021.
This will be an interesting few days or weeks. Interesting doesn’t begin to describe things.
Will President Trump Execute Order 13848? By Callum Wood, on Nov 23.
Wood says the EO is tailor made for the situation Trump and the US find themselves in:
This document was signed under a state of national emergency that exists to this day. Strong language. At the time, many Democrats rejected it as too little, too late. They criticized it for focusing too exclusively on ballot-counting machines and software — the exact problem we see crippling America’s election process right now. …
Dominion Voting Systems, Smartmatic and Scytl are all companies with foreign ties that were used in these elections, and there are reports that other companies from Germany and Serbia were also involved. All of these would then fall under the scope of Executive Order 13848.
What does that allow the Trump administration to do? It allows, among other things, the seizure of property within the United States, restrictions on access to financial institutions, and “any other measures authorized by law.”
And who could be targeted? Any companies or persons that have “directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign interference in a United States election.” Could that include companies and members of the mainstream media and big tech? “The Trump executive order about rigging elections … means clearly that the net can be cast very wide,” radio commentator Alan Jones stated. “It will be a brave person who is prepared to bet, even now, against Donald Trump.”
We have witnessed a coordinated attempt to steal an election. And it is, in large part, coming from within the United States. Yes, the ballot counting machines and hardware are foreign-owned, but it was the radical left and its media cabal that worked to rig the election.
This order allows the Justice Department to go after foreign interference aided by complicit cooperation on U.S. soil. All that remains is for the evidence to come out.
The bottom line at the moment is that we don’t know. If the EO for foreign interference was unfolding we could have expected to see some of the activity we have seen. But if those servers or machines were wiped, this may be the sting that nipped, not the Grand Mal demolition of the corrupt Deep State we all hope to see. Beware: confirmation bias beckons.
Douglas Wilson points out these are extraordinary powers, perhaps too extraordinary:
Now if he does take action on the basis of the executive order, and does so in a way that simply kicks the issues involved into the courts, then I have no real problem. That really would be benign. That would not be arbitrary government.
But if he just up and seizes Google’s assets, however much that makes us want to clap our tiny hands with joy as far as Google’s comeuppance is concerned, the simple fact is that this would be arbitrary government. Maybe some of the editors that Lincoln arrested were actually bad men. Maybe, but that doesn’t matter. That’s not how you do it.
One thing any investigation of US Presidential powers shows is that the man who occupies the Office has awesome power to do things, and without Congressional approval. It’s a gift in the right hands, but it’s ominous how much damage it could do in the wrong hands. That thought only makes it more imperative to restore free and fair elections and a functional media
.
Executive order for foreign interference
The White house: The Executive Order on in the event of Foreign Interference in an Election. 13848
I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that the ability of persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States to interfere in or undermine public confidence in United States elections, including through the unauthorized accessing of election and campaign infrastructure or the covert distribution of propaganda and disinformation, constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. Although there has been no evidence of a foreign power altering the outcome or vote tabulation in any United States election, foreign powers have historically sought to exploit America’s free and open political system. In recent years, the proliferation of digital devices and internet-based communications has created significant vulnerabilities and magnified the scope and intensity of the threat of foreign interference, as illustrated in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with this threat.
h/t to Lance, Bill C, Crackar24, William Astley.
Image: Wikimedia. October 2018. Trump signs the Support act. Twitter.
