President Donald Trump took to Twitter over the weekend to dismiss reports that he considered arguments to declare Martial Law during an Oval Office meeting Friday.
Early Sunday morning, Trump tweeted, “Martial law = Fake News. Just more knowingly bad reporting!”
The president’s former national security advisor Ret. Gen. Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell were among those involved in the discussion allegedly calling on Trump to “rerun” the 2020 election using military supervision, The New York Times reported.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who were also involved in the meeting, strongly opposed the suggestion, two people briefed on the discussion said.
Prior to meeting with the President last week, Flynn appeared on Newsmax to discuss the idea of rerunning an election in the swing states under military direction.
“He could order, within the swing states, if he wanted to he could take military capabilities, and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states. It’s not unprecedented. These people out there talking about martial law like it’s something that we’ve never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times,” Flynn said.
“I’m not calling for that,” the general added. “We have a Constitutional process. We clearly have a Constitutional process that has to be followed.”
Meadows, Cipollone and Giuliani also pushed back against the idea of appointing Powell as a special counsel to pursue claims of voter fraud, the Times reported.
Shortly after the meeting, the Trump campaign directed staffers to keep any documents connected to Powell and Dominion Voting Systems. Powell has been called on by the voting systems company to withdraw claims of voter fraud linked to their machines and software. The Times noted that preserving documentation could mean officials are organizing for potential legal action.
Trump and his team have pushed back against the results of the 2020 presidential election, asserting that widespread voter fraud and suppression impacted the outcome.
The Trump campaign filed a new petition in the Supreme Court over the weekend, seeking to reverse Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases involving mail-in ballots.
“The petition seeks all appropriate remedies, including vacating the appointment of electors committed to Joseph Biden and allowing the Pennsylvania General Assembly to select their replacements,” Giuliani said in a statement.
Giuliani asked the court to move quickly in order to make a decision before Congress convenes to count Electoral College votes on January 6.
