Lawyer urged Trump to overturn loss through 'martial law': Memo

A lawyer pushing the claim of massive fraud in the disputed 2020 election called on former US President Donald Trump to overturn his loss through “martial law,” according to a report.

According to a memo published online on Saturday by the New York Times, attorney William Olson proposed Trump take measures including replacing the acting attorney general if he refused to contest the vote in the US Supreme Court.

He also suggested naming a new White House counsel to identify powers that Trump could use “to ensure a fair election count,” the memo showed.  

Olson suggested those powers included ordering “sampling from lists of registered voters,” the memo showed.

“Our little band of lawyers is working on a memorandum that explains exactly what you can do,” Olson wrote to Trump in the memo, which was dated Dec. 28, 2020. “The media will call this martial law, but ... that is 'fake news' -- a concept with which you are well familiar.”

The memo revealed for the first time Olson’s role in efforts by right-wing actors outside the White House to convince Trump to overturn the controversial victory of his Democratic foe, Joe Biden.

Trump had pressured his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn his 2020 election defeat, aides to Pence told the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 protest march on the Capitol when thousands of people marched against the certification of the November 2020 election which placed Joe Biden in office as the current US president.

Members of the Democratic-led House of Representatives select committee said last month Trump continued his pressure campaign despite being told repeatedly it was illegal to do so as Pence and lawmakers met to formally certify Biden's victory.

The nine-member select committee is trying to build a case that Trump's efforts to overturn his defeat amounted to illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics. Pence has criticized Trump's earlier complaints about his handling of the January 6 Joint Session, which, as a part of the regular legal process of validating presidential elections, was convened to certify the legitimacy of the Electoral College votes of the various states.

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing while maintaining that he lost the election only because of widespread fraud that benefited Democrat Biden. Trump and his supporters – denounce the January 6 panel as a political witchhunt.

Trump claimed that he won the 2020 presidential election and that there was "massive" voter fraud. The former president claimed that he ordered 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol.

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The certification vote on January 6 had become a focus for Trump.  On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters occupied the US Capitol while lawmakers were in the process of reviewing the certification of state electors which indicated Biden's victory. Some Trump supporters had hoped that this process could have resulted in some of the electors being disqualified, thus overturning the outcome of the presidential election.

It is claimed by some that the demonstrators were infiltrated and incited by provocateurs from US intelligence agencies, who orchestrated the “false flag operation” in order to get rid of Trump.

Some among the crowd clashed with police, and some made threats to beat up a number of Democratic lawmakers. Some also inflicted damage on parts of the Capitol building.

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