House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Donald Trump are already at work on an effort to attempt to steal the 2024 election from voters, says legal columnist Elie Mystal from "The Nation."
At a recent rally, Trump teased a "little secret" that he had between himself and Johnson that he predicted will ultimately have a “big impact."
Johnson appeared to confirm it to the New York Times, saying, “By definition, a secret is not to be shared — and I don’t intend to share this one."
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Mystal is fairly certain he knows the secret plot to take any potential victory away from Vice President Kamala Harris.
"The 'secret' almost certainly involves a plan to install Trump in the White House if he loses the election—but this plan could be even worse than you think," he wrote on Wednesday.
The longtime legal analyst confessed that he doesn't have any insider knowledge, but said that he thinks he knows the actions Johnson will try from the House.
"It’s entirely possible that the secret plan is nothing more than a penny-ante plot to, say, set fire to ballot dropboxes, which could be foiled by the Hardy Boys or Merrick Garland should he ever wake up," Mystal said.
Some have wondered if Johnson might install Trump as president by claiming a “contingent election” that allows "the House of Representatives, not the Electoral College, to determine the president.” But Mystal thinks the "plot goes deeper than that."
When people talk about a "contingent election" they're referring to the Twelfth Amendment, saying that if no candidate wins the majority of Electoral College votes the House can decide the election.
"The key here is that the process is not based on a vote of the full House, it’s based on a vote of House delegations, with each state getting an equal vote. Currently, Republicans control 26 of the 50 House delegations, meaning they could hand Trump the presidency in a contingent election scenario," said Mystal.
That said, Mystal doesn't think they'll even go that far. His fear is that in states where Trump loses, Electoral College voters will refuse to certify the results.
"That’s because the Twelfth Amendment provides that the president is the person who wins the majority of the 'whole number of Electors appointed,'" Mystal quoted. "That 'whole number' is supposed to be 538. But one potential reading of the Amendment is that Trump doesn’t have to win 270 Electoral College votes, he just has to win a majority of however many electors show up. Trump’s goal, I believe, is to decrease the number of electors appointed until he wins."
It's never been tried before, he said. It would begin to show up between Dec. 14 and 20, when the Electoral College is set to cast their votes.
The problem that they may run into is that if the effort doesn't succeed, they could be prosecuted by federal and state governments, as has happened in several states from the 2020 election.