Who were the masterminds behind Jan 6, where are they now . . . [View all]

. . . and what are they doing?

Was it Ian Fleming who told us “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.”?

January 6, 2021, was not happenstance or coincidence – it was carefully planned over at least one year, likely longer, in great detail with every player assigned a part.

I think Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election was designed around several steps, each building on the preceding.

Who was the individual who conceived of this? What was the network that recruited people, organized them, assigned tasks, and – when the time came – gave them the signal to “Go!”?

Here is a bare bones, off-the-top-of-my-head description of the phases of this operation.

First phase – local or state actions. Months before Nov 2020:
• Many states “cleaned up” their voter registration rolls, removing people from the rolls for various reasons, many of them suspicious.
• Republicans recruited and trained various “poll watchers” who would either observe operations inside polling places or interfere with voters approaching the polling places.
• Republicans recruited poll workers, the people who work inside the polls, checking in voters, issuing ballots, operating the voting machines, and the like.
• I suspect Republicans also recruited local attorneys who – on Election Day and night -- could file suits, appeal to election judges, and take other legal actions to lay the groundwork to claim the election was stolen.

Second phase – state action.
• Recruit and train attorneys to challenge election results at the state level.
• Recruit and train “alternate sets of electors.”
• Study state and federal election law to be prepared to challenge the results.

Third phase – federal action.
• Recruit and train attorneys to challenge federal actions to certify the election.
• Prepare members of Congress to challenge the election results.

MEANWHILE – set up the final phase:
• Identify, recruit, train, and coordinate with violent, armed groups who would stop the certification, seize control of the Congress, and install Trump.
• Locate and prepare federal officials who will support military intervention, support “alternate electors,” carry out Trump’s orders, and identify legal arguments to justify overturning the election.

None of this happened in a vacuum. Trump is not smart enough and not familiar enough with state and federal election processes to plan this detailed operation. No one person could do this alone.

I suspect that sometime in 2017-2018, a small group approached Trump with the outline of a plan to overturn the 2020 election in case it did not go his way. I suspect he listened and told them to do it. I suspect he received regular briefings about how the project was progressing.

When it was clear Trump lost, the plan went into action, first with state challenges to the minutia of counting and recounting ballots, progressing through legal challenges, then, when all legal challenges were thrown out of court, call in the troops.

All of which raises some questions:
• WHO PLANNED THIS THING?
• WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
• WHAT ARE THEY DOING NOW?

Remember – they have the playbook for a coup. A failed coup is just a dress rehearsal for the next one.

I hope I’m wrong.