Donald Trump’s doomed attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat reportedly included a scheme to take control of voting machines in crucial swing states. A report from The New York Times reveals that Trump pressed his lawyer Rudy Giuliani to ask the Department of Homeland Security if it was legally possible for it to seize control of the machines, and also asked Attorney General William Barr if the Justice Department could carry out the same unprecedented task. The Times states that the Giuliani directive took place six weeks after the election, and the Barr meeting happened shortly before that. According to the report, Barr shot down the suggestion, while Giuliani did reach out to the DHS, only to be told he lacked the authority to take control of the voting machines. Trump’s advisers reportedly wrote two drafts of an executive order authorizing the military to oversee the seizure of the machines, at which point Giuliani is said to have abandoned the plans, and persuaded Trump that the military shouldn’t get involved.
