Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows provided an email to Jan. 6 investigators that referred to a PowerPoint plan showing how Donald Trump could use emergency presidential powers after his 2020 election defeat to overturn the vote, according to media reports and lawmakers.
The plan involved then-president Trump declaring a national security emergency to delay the certification of the 2020 election results, then manhandling the vote to favor him and stay in the White House.
It was not clear who created the PowerPoint plan or how it came to be emailed to Meadows. Meadows’ lawyer said the former chief of staff did not act on the plan or otherwise do anything about the email, according to The New York Times.
Guardian reporter Hugo Lowell posted screen shots of the PowerPoint presentation.
The chilling 38-page presentation, titled “Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 Jan,” was referred to in an email sent on Jan. 5, the day before the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol while Congress certified the Electoral College vote. The email was among a trove of documents provided by Meadows to the House select committee investigating the riot.
The plan was to be sent to “people on the Hill,” said Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the House select committee. He referred to elements of that plan and others as part of a “direct and collateral attack” by Trump allies after the election.
Under the PowerPoint plan, Trump was to declare a national emergency, citing foreign “control” of electronic voting systems, and then all electronic voting would be rendered invalid. Then-Vice President Mike Pence was to install Republican electors in states where Trump allies would baselessly declare that “fraud occurred,” according to the maneuvers outlined in the plan.
Thompson referred to the strategies to overthrow the election in a letter Tuesday to Meadows’ attorney, saying Meadows has no legitimate argument to refuse to cooperate with the House investigation.
Meadows reversed an earlier promise to cooperate with the committee, even though he himself appears to be breaching the executive privilege he claims by widely discussing what led up to Jan. 6, even writing a book that includes details he now refuses to discuss with investigators.
Meadows has filed a lawsuit against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and members of the House select committee, claiming he cannot provide information due to the constraints of executive privilege while he served in Trump’s White House.
The new information revealed by Meadows underscores the danger of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told colleagues that he feared a “Reichstag moment” after Trump lost the election, referring to Adolf Hitler’s power grab in 1933.