The New York Times published a bombshell report Monday that exposed more of former President Donald Trump's efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. In one instance, the report says, Trump begged Rudy Giuliani to call the Department of Homeland Security and ask about having the military seize voting machines. His aides also penned multiple executive orders to enact the same.
As the news broke, legal experts were somewhat surprised, but the crux of the story about Trump's further attempt to overthrow the election was simply more of the same that experts have observed. What some did find shocking, however, was that it was Giuliani who told Trump a military takeover wouldn't fly. Giuliani isn't generally known to political or legal pundits as the prudent adviser among Trump's aides.
Former federal prosecutor Shanlon Wu argued that there were no good-faith efforts involved in these stories. It was all a rush to overturn the lawful and fair election results.
Nobody involved in these plans had any good faith basis to be asking military, Homeland Security, DOJ to seize voting machines - they simply wanted to overturn a lawful election.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/trump-election-fraud.html?smid=tw-share\u00a0\u2026— Shanlon Wu (@Shanlon Wu) 1643690208
Another former federal prosecutor noted that the headline and description in the Times was misleading. The Times purports Trump was seeking "evidence of fraud," when the reality is that Trump knew there wasn't fraud and wanted to overturn the results.
While the article correctly notes that Trump's claims of fraud were "baseless" and "unsuccessful," it was unprecedented for the President to order the federal government to take control of states' electoral machinery with the intent to reverse the outcome of the election.— Renato Mariotti (@Renato Mariotti) 1643687552
At times, the way this article describes what Trump did does not provide sufficient context to readers to make clear that what Trump did was unprecedented and would have been unlawful if others followed through on his directives.— Renato Mariotti (@Renato Mariotti) 1643687552
See other comments from legal experts below:
There are some jaw-dropping things in this article:\n\nThe craziest of which is Giuliani was one of the most rational people in the Oval Office at some critical moments.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/trump-election-fraud.html\u00a0\u2026— Katie S. Phang (@Katie S. Phang) 1643688983
On the brink: Six weeks after Election Day Trump directed Giuliani to ask Homeland Security if it could legally TAKE CONTROL OF VOTING MACHINES in key swing states. Giuliani called deputy secretary who said he lacked authority to audit or impound machines.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/trump-election-fraud.html\u00a0\u2026— Leslie Proll (@Leslie Proll) 1643688678
Nutters leading the nutters.https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/trump-election-fraud.html?smid=tw-share\u00a0\u2026— Neal Katyal (@Neal Katyal) 1643687857
https://twitter.com/nytmike/status/1488357114250674176\u00a0\u2026— Joyce Alene (@Joyce Alene) 1643687332
