Trump Sycophants Advanced a Coup Plot They Knew Was Illegal – By Dan Friedman (Mother Jones) / June 16, 2022
Eastman, Giuliani, and others helped push the president’s unlawful scheme, testimony shows.
Beware the yes men. Donald Trump couldn’t have caused January 6 alone. The defeated president’s attempted putsch would not have gone as far it did, and the January 6 attack on Congress might have been avoided, if sycophantic Trump aides had not helped Trump further plans that they privately admitted were illegal and dangerous. And Trump’s coup attempt would have gone further had VP Mike Pence and his staff not finally stood up to the boss.
The select committee investigating the January 6 attack on Congress revealed Thursday that John Eastman, the conservative lawyer who helped concoct the unsupported notion that Pence could unilaterally reject electors and hand Trump another term, had begun discussing the plot before Election Day.
Eastman knew even then that the plan was unlawful: “Nowhere does it suggest the President of the Senate gets to make the determination on his own,” he wrote in comments on a draft letter to Trump that the committee revealed on Thursday. The letter, whose authorship is unclear, described how Pence could reject state electors. Eastman’s note referred to the 12th Amendment, which lays out the process for confirming electoral votes.
