A team of Donald Trump’s lawyers and associates who launched a last-ditch effort to stay in power ahead of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot enlisted the help of a retired Army colonel who specialized in psychological operations, The Washington Post reports. The so-called legal “command center” at the ritzy Willard hotel in Washington, D.C. featured Rudy Giuliani, former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik, and former White House Chief of Staff Steve Bannon. John Eastman, the lawyer who authored the memo outlining how then-Vice President Mike Pence could suspend the Senate’s certification of the 2020 presidential election’s results, also made appearances at the “war room,” where Team Trump pushed the lie that he had won the election and reportedly devised ways to pressure Pence into stopping certification. Among those involved in the effort, according to the Post, was Phil Waldron, a former Army officer with expertise in psychological operations. Waldron led a team analyzing state election data he said gave credence to Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.
