quote:

Originally posted by CHAS:
"Today I am briefing my government that we believe with a reasonable level of certainty that Donald Trump attempted a coup that failed when the system did not buckle."
Coup

quote:

President Donald Trump urged a Georgia election investigator to "find the fraud" in a phone call last month, raising new questions about his effort to pressure local leaders to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election.

Trump called the state’s lead election investigator shortly before Christmas as officials were looking into allegations of fraud in Cobb County. The call was first reported by The Washington Post, which did not identify the name of the investigator.

A Georgia official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters confirmed the details of the call to USA TODAY.

Former prosecutors said the call appeared to open yet another potential legal challenge for the president, who has less than two weeks left in office.

"Trump’s efforts look criminal on their face, but proving his state of mind will be tricky because his state of mind is rather complicated," said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor. "Whether a prosecution could be made would depend on the evidence of Trump’s intent and knowledge during these conversations."

quote:

White House officials pushed Atlanta’s top federal prosecutor to resign before Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoffs because President Trump was upset he wasn’t doing enough to investigate the president’s unproven claims of election fraud, people familiar with the matter said.

A senior Justice Department official, at the behest of the White House, called the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak late on the night of Jan. 3. In that call the official said Mr. Trump was furious there was no investigation related to election fraud and that the president wanted to fire Mr. Pak, the people said.

Mr. Pak resigned abruptly on Monday—the day before the runoffs—saying in an early morning email to colleagues that his departure was due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

Mr. Pak, who had a job lined up in the private sector, planned to leave by the end of the administration and had drafted a resignation letter, people familiar with his plans said.

Mr. Pak on Jan. 3 considered leaving early after the public release of a call from the day before between Mr. Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger in which the president pushed the official to overturn the November election results, one person said. When Mr. Pak communicated that on the Sunday call, the White House indicated he should leave immediately, the person said.

quote:

The White House pushed the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta to resign before Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff because President Donald Trump was unhappy that he wasn’t doing enough to investigate Trump’s unfounded claims of election fraud, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The Justice Department on Tuesday tapped a new federal prosecutor to lead the Atlanta office, a day after the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, Byung J. “BJay” Pak, abruptly resigned.

Pak’s resignation drew attention because Trump appeared to refer to him in a recent phone call with Georgia’s secretary of state in which the outgoing Republican president asked state officials to try to “find” enough votes to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

In a recording obtained by numerous media outlets, Trump appeared to complain during the call about Pak without naming him, saying there was a “Never Trumper U.S. attorney” in Georgia.

The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said that at the behest of the White House, a senior Justice Department official called and told Pak he needed to step down because he was not pursuing the voter-fraud allegations to Trump’s satisfaction.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:

....3) the inauguration is going to need to have more security than probably any inauguration in America’s history.

quote:

1) probably the only reason it didn’t work is because Trump is so thoroughly incompetent. His narcissism gets in the way of any intelligence he might otherwise have, and so he surrounds himself with people who have shortcomings that he is unable to accurately assess.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
Be prepared for several years of this. When revolutionaries cannot get their way politically, and cannot win militarily, they resort to terrorism. America's time for its own Viet Cong may have arrived.