Donald Trump's efforts to seize voting machines has fallen under investigation by the House select committee.
New reporting shows the twice-impeached one-term president took an active role in directing federal, state and local officials, as well as the military, to seize voting machines in states he lost as part of an ongoing effort to overturn the 2020 election results, reported the New York Times.
“We certainly intend to run to ground any evidence bearing on an effort to seize voting machines and to use the apparatus of the federal government to confiscate these machines in the service of the president’s aim to overturn the election,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). “We want to fully flesh out the facts: How close did this come to being operationalized? What kind of pushback did they receive? Who was a part of this particular scheme? We want to answer all those questions.”
It's not clear what evidence the panel has investigated, but the newspaper reported the committee recently obtained a document from the Trump administration that court filings describe as "containing presidential findings" on the security of the 2020 election that included "ordering various actions."
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A document that fits that description, which included false claims promoted by attorney Sidney Powell, circulated among Trump's formal and informal advisers after the election, and used baseless assertions about foreign interference to conclude Trump has "probable cause" to order the military to seize voting machines.
Trump reportedly directed his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to ask the Department of Homeland Security to seize the devices, and he also asked attorney general William Barr whether the Department of Justice could do so, but then-acting DHS deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli and Barr both refused.
Giuliani and White House officials then reportedly refused to direct the Pentagon to seize the machines.
