<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr">Now Trump is seriously considering martial law.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">Courtesy of <i>CNN</i> at:<div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/trump-oval-office-meeting-special-counsel-martial-law/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/trump-oval-office-meeting-special-counsel-martial-law/index.html</a></div><div><br></div><div>————————————————-</div><div><h1 class="pg-headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 40px; margin: 0px auto; font-family: "CNN Condensed", CNN, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 44px; padding: 16px 0px 0px; font-feature-settings: "kern"; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; letter-spacing: -0.01em; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: rgb(38, 38, 38); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of special counsel, martial law as Trump advisers clash</h1></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">(CNN)</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">President Donald Trump convened a heated meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, including <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/trump-campaign-sidney-powell-dominion-voting-systems/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">lawyer Sidney Powell</span></a> and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, two people familiar with the matter said, describing a session that began as an impromptu gathering but devolved and eventually broke out into screaming matches at certain points as some of Trump's aides pushed back on Powell and Flynn's more outrageous suggestions about overturning the election. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Flynn had suggested earlier this week that Trump could invoke martial law as part of his efforts to overturn the election that he lost to President-elect Joe Biden -- an idea that arose again during the meeting in the Oval Office, one of the people said. It wasn't clear whether Trump endorsed the idea, but others in the room forcefully pushed back and shot it down. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">The meeting was first reported by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/politics/trump-sidney-powell-voter-fraud.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">the New York Times</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">White House aides who participated in the meeting, including White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Pat Cipollone, also pushed back intensely on the suggestion of naming Powell as a special counsel to investigate voter fraud allegations Trump's own administration has dismissed (or, as seems more feasible, hiring her in the administration for some kind of investigatory role). Powell has focused her conspiracies on voting machines and has floated the notion of having a special counsel inspect the machines for flaws.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Another idea floated in the meeting was an executive order that would permit the government to access voting machines to inspect them. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">One person described the meeting as "ugly" as Powell and Flynn accused others of abandoning the President as he works to overturn the results of the election.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">"It was heated -- people were really fighting it out in the Oval, really forceful about it," one of the sources said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">One of the sources described an escalating sense of concern among Trump's aides, even those who have weathered his previous controversies, about what steps he might take next as his term comes to an end.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">Shortly after that meeting, Trump's campaign staff received <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/trump-campaign-sidney-powell-dominion-voting-systems/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">a memo from the campaign legal team</span></a> on Saturday instructing them to preserve all documents related to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/12/18/dominion-voting-systems-ceo-john-poulos-debunks-trump-conspiracy-theories-ebof-vpx.cnn" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">Dominion Voting Systems</span></a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/24/business/sidney-powell-qanon/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: rgb(48, 97, 243); text-decoration: none;">Powell</span></a> in anticipation of potential litigation by the company against the pro-Trump attorney. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">The memo, viewed by CNN, references a letter Dominion sent to Powell this week demanding she publicly retract her accusations and instructs campaign staff not to alter, destroy or discard records that could be relevant.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 11.25pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);">A serious internal divide has formed within Trump's campaign following the election with tensions at their highest between the campaign's general counsel, Matt Morgan, who sent the memo Saturday, and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Though the campaign once distanced itself from Powell, Trump has been urging other people to fight like she has, according to multiple people familiar with his remarks. He has asked for more people making her arguments, which are often baseless and filled with conspiracy theories, on television.</span></p></div><div>————————————————-<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/">http://www.moscowcares.com/</a></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><b>“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Trump”</b></div><div><a href="http://www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Songs/Donald_Trump/Youre_a_Mean_One_Mr_Trump.mp3">http://www.tomandrodna.com/MoscowCares/Songs/Donald_Trump/Youre_a_Mean_One_Mr_Trump.mp3</a></div></div></div></div></body></html>