Donald Trump asked whether he will run for President in 2024
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Donald Trump has continued to peddle claims about election fraud despite these claims being debunked as baseless by many experts. Almost a year since ballots were cast, a new memo has come to light identifying a behind-the-scenes scheme to overturn the election result. Far from endorsing the scheme, in response key senators instead told former president Trump to seek out Queen Elizabeth II.
A new book from Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa called Peril includes comments from a conservative lawyer who worked with Mr Trump’s legal team in the wake of the November election.
The lawyer, John Eastman, tried to convince then-vice president Mike Pence the election result could be overturned on January 6 by throwing out electors from seven states.
Mr Eastman outlined the scheme in a two-page memo included in the new book and seen by CNN.
The leaked note provides new insight into the way in which Mr Trump and his legal team tried to persuade Mr Pence to subvert the US Constitution and throw out the election results on January 6.
Dozens of attempts to overturn the election result were thrown out in the wake of the loss, but this effort shows just one of the behind-the-scenes attempts Mr Trump’s team undertook.
The reason for throwing out these results was down to the fact they allegedly had competing electors.
However, in fact, no state had actually put forward an alternate slate of electors; these individuals were merely Mr Trump’s allies claiming without any authority to be electors.
The strategy from Mr Eastman was sent to GOP Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Mr Trump’s attorney tried to convince fellow Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina of election fraud.
However, both of these senators found the election fraud claims had no merit, dismissing the argument put forward by Mr Eastman.
Mr Lee responded by saying Mr Trump could take his case to the Queen rather than Congress given the foolish nature of the argument.
According to the book, Senator Lee said: “You might as well make your case to Queen Elizabeth II.
“Congress can’t do this. You’re wasting your time.”
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If Mr Eastman’s scheme had been endorsed, Mike Pence would have declared Mr Trump the winner of the 2020 US election race.
This is because with the seven states made invalid, he would have had more Electoral College votes at 232 to 222.
The former vice president would have had to say no candidate had reached 270 votes in the Electoral College which then would mean the election was thrown to the House of Representatives.
In the House of Representatives, each US state is given one vote and since the Republicans hold this house, a majority for Mr Trump would have been the result and therefore Mr Trump would have remained the US leader.
This plan was first put to Mr Pence in the Oval Office on January 4 with Mr Trump and Mr Eastman in situ.
In Peril, the authors claim at that time Mr Trump said: “You really need to listen to John. He’s a respected constitutional scholar. Hear him out.”
The authors add Mr Eastman even went as far as to suggest Mr Pence take action without warning.
The lawyer wrote: “The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission — either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court.
“The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter. We should take all of our actions with that in mind.”
However, as proven by contemporary events, Mr Pence did not back the strategy and instead called the election for Joe Biden.
The former vice president concluded the Constitution did not empower him to take such action – all he was entitled to do was count the Electoral College votes.
At his refusal to back Mr Trump’s scheme, the former US leader armed himself with blistering words using Twitter to denigrate his second-in-command.
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