It is crystal clear that the former President Donald Trump and a small cabal concocted, and attempted a coup d’etat on January 6. The simple timeline of events reveals the plot and why immediate legal consequences, not a full-blown inquiry, can be, and should, pursued against all the perpetrators, not just the rioters.
Democrats impeached Trump for inciting the insurrection, but the Senate failed to convict, and hearings are underway. But the treason hides in plain sight. It was sedition by omission, or intentional dereliction of duty, by Trump and a handful of loyalists embedded inside the Pentagon and White House.
Exhibit 1: That day, one dozen powerful politicians from both parties and public officials placed frantic “911” calls during the attack to persons in high office at both the Pentagon and the White House. They pleaded for National Guard assistance as the small force of Capitol guards was being overtaken by thousands of armed and crazed thugs. A gallows was erected for the world’s cameras to underscore their intent. All this was televised in real-time.
Exhibit 2: The Pentagon and President sat on their hands for four hours before sending in the National Guard. By comparison, on September 11, 2000, it took the Pentagon just five minutes after the first terrorist attack hit the World Trade Center to evacuate the President and his cabinet to safety, to scramble thousands of jets, and shut down America’s airspace.
The End Game: Dangerous goons would be invited to Washington D.C., stoked by Trump in a speech, sent to the Capitol to “remove” Vice President Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi from the Presidential line of succession, and, finally, invoke The Insurrection Act of 1807. This law allows a President to unilaterally send in troops across the country in certain limited circumstances involved in the defense of constitutional rights. Trump intended to extend his tenure indefinitely by starting, then quelling, his own insurrection.
This is the timeline:
November 7: The “Stop the Steal” movement had been seeded before the election in September through social media, radical conservative outlets, and violence-prone activist groups. By November 5, two days after the vote, it had become the rallying cry for protesters aiming to stop vote counting. Online traffic was monstrous, according to a report by Just Security which publishes curated information about national and international security.
November 10: Trump fired his Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and the very next day several senior Defense Department officials resigned and were replaced by Trump loyalists. Esper, in an interview with the Military Times days before Trump fired him, warned: “Who’s going to come in behind me? It’s going to be a real ‘yes man.’ And then, God help us.”
That “Yes Man” was Christopher Miller who immediately began obstructing the transition process with the Biden team. Already in place was Charles Flynn — Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army (involved in activating the National Guard) — the younger brother of Trump’s former national security advisor Michael Flynn who was fired, pled guilty to lying to the FBI.
December 3: Michael Flynn was pardoned and publicly stated that Trump should “temporarily suspend the Constitution” until a new election could be held. The day before, Fox News interviewed another retired General, Thomas McInerney, who also called for Trump to declare martial law and undertake a coup. These traitorous dog whistles spread throughout the country’s military and police establishments.
January 3: A White House meeting was held to look into security concerns over the January 6 transfer of power by Congress. Trump attended and approved the activation of the National Guard, but delegated all final decisions to Chris “Yes Man” Miller.
January 3: An unprecedented letter was published and signed by ten former Defense Secretaries warning that any military involvement in settling election disputes was dangerous and illegal. Significantly, it was signed by Mark Esper, who had just been fired by Trump, and the letter was designed to counteract those in the military who wanted to seize power by declaring martial law.
January 5: An FBI office in Virginia issued an explicit warning that extremists were preparing to go to Washington to commit violence and “war”. The head of the Capitol police department testified later at a Congressional hearing that he was never informed of this threat.
January 6 — The Day That Will Live in Infamy
12 noon. Trump delivered an incendiary speech in front of the White House to thousands, then urged them to march on the Capitol. An hour later, they swarmed the complex, many with weapons, climbing gear, chemical munitions, armor, and radio earpieces to coordinate their assault, according to first-hand police accounts. They erected gallows, attacked the perimeter, and assaulted police viciously.
1.34 pm. The Mayor asked directly for National Guard support because both the D.C. police and Capitol police were overwhelmed and the building had been breached. A pipe bomb near the building had also been found.
1.49 pm. The Chief of the Capitol police then also officially requested to Army officials that they approve sending in the National Guard, a request that was passed along to its brass immediately.
2.24 pm. Trump stoked tempers by tweeting that “Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country and our constitution.”
3.04 pm. Approval to mobilize the National Guard was granted, but approval to actually deploy troops was not given the green light for two more hours.
4:08 pm. Pence, still in hiding, called Defense Secretary Miller personally by phone demanding to know “why were more troops not provided in advance?”
4.17 pm. Trump tweeted a video telling Trumpies to go home, but repeated that the election was stolen, he won in a landslide, and added “we love you; you’re very special.”
4.41 pm. Acting Secretary of Defense Miller finally approved National Guard activation from nearby states.
5.20 pm. Some National Guard units arrived but the mob had mostly disappeared.
8 pm. The Capitol complex was officially declared secure and Congress resumed its transfer of power proceedings.
January 7 at 3.42 am. Pence officially affirmed the election results and declared Joe Biden the President-elect.
January 8. The Pentagon publicly released its timeline of events during the riot, but many facts were missing or distorted. Among those, for instance, was a denial that Charles Flynn was involved in calls concerning the decision to send in the National Guard. Two days after the denial, the Pentagon admitted he was involved. (In June, the Pentagon transferred Flynn to Hawaii to take command of the U.S. Army Pacific.)
January 13. Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection but not convicted by the Senate.
May 19. House passes a bill to set up a 10-person independent commission into January 6.
May 28. Senate Republicans block the bill.
May 30. An unbowed Michael Flynn headlined a QAnon conference in Dallas and responded to an audience question by stating there was “no reason” the U.S. shouldn’t have a coup d’etat like the one in Myanmar in February that removed a democratic government, adding, “it should happen.” He walked it back but many experts believed that this constituted sedition under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, as did his December pronouncement about the need for martial law to redo the election.
June 2. A 10-minute CNN sequence shows Flynn’s Myanmar reference followed by a candid interview with Richard Painter, the outspoken former White House chief ethics lawyer, who declared that Flynn and others should be charged with sedition:
CNN TEXT: “This [Flynn’s remark] is a call for a coup and this is not the first time Michael Flynn has done this. Back in November, [Mike] Flynn met with DT [Donald Trump] in the WH and they talked about having a military takeover, to redo the election,” said Painter. “That was sedition. Flynn should have been criminally charged with sedition and also perhaps Donald Trump as an accomplice. Flynn has repeatedly called for a military takeover. This can be prosecuted. There is a pattern of conduct and, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice [UCMJ], Flynn can and should be court-martialed. This is extremely dangerous for a former general to be calling for a military coup. He knows he’s crossed the line both under the Sedition Statue and the UCMJ.”
Obviously, January 6 was not a spontaneous riot, but a plot to flout the constitution. Also obviously, the failure on the part of the Pentagon, Army, and White House to immediately mobilize local National Guards to protect the Capitol was an omission, or deliberate withdrawal of services, in collusion with a staged riot designed to be a pretext to suspend constitutional rights across the country.
Criminal investigations are underway but the dragnet should extend to officials in Washington. To date, 500 rioters have been arrested and hundreds more are under suspicion or have lost their jobs or government or law enforcement positions. But the top dogs behind the scheme — including Trump, Flynn, and all Pentagon and White House officials involved in the chain of command who did not answer calls for help — must be investigated.
Most importantly, however, Congress must erect guard rails because, quite frankly, a smarter bunch of traitors could have pulled this off.
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I’m long past ready for the ax to fall on all the big dog perpetrators. I have my doubts that anything will come of it but god knows, if anyone deserves it, trump org certainly does.
Yes. All of it.