Trump coup plan included harassment and intimidation campaign against election officials – “I’ll never forget the moment armed protestors gathered outside my home in the dark of night last December”
By Andrew Feinberg
4 January 2022
WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Independent) – Allies of former president Donald Trump planned a campaign of harassment and intimidation against election officials and “weak” Republicans that was to culminate in what would become the worst attack on the US Capitol since the Burning of Washington in 1814, according to new documents provided to Congress.
The Trump team’s strategy was revealed in documents provided to the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol by Bernard Kerik, the disgraced ex-New York City police commissioner who spent the days and weeks following the 2020 presidential election promoting baseless claims of election fraud in hopes of dissuading state officials – and later Congress – from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory over Mr Trump.
Mr Kerik, a convicted felon who received a presidential pardon from Mr Trump in February 2018, received a subpoena from the select committee demanding that he produce documents and give evidence concerning his involvement in “efforts to promote false claims of election fraud or overturn the results of the 2020 election” and promotion of “baseless litigation and ‘Stop the Steal’ efforts” on 5 November 2020.
Although many of Mr Trump’s associates have refused to cooperate with the select committee’s efforts, Mr Kerik has not showed the same level of defiance that has left two Trump allies – ex-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon – facing the possibility of criminal convictions for contempt of Congress.
Instead, the ex-police officer has produced some of the documents demanded by the committee and has agreed to give evidence in a voluntary interview with committee members. He has also provided the committee with a log of documents purportedly withheld as “attorney work product”, which his attorney claimed is justified because Mr Kerik, who does not hold a private investigator’s license in New York or Washington DC, was employed as an investigator by Mr Trump’s attorneys. […]
![Document showing how the Trump coup plan on 6 January 2021 singled out Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who would later see armed protesters outside her home. Asked to comment on Mr. Kerik’s plan to target the homes of secretaries of state with protests. On 4 January 2022, Ms. Benson told The Independent she would “never forget the moment armed protestors gathered outside [her] home in the dark of night last December, nor the images of the tragedy at our US Capitol on January 6”. Graphic: Bernard Kerik / The Independent](https://desdemonadespair.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Document-showing-Trump-coup-plan-6-Jan-2021-singled-out-Michigan-Secretary-of-State-Jocelyn-Benson-Bernard-Kerik-The-Independent-1-1024x816.png)
In one instance, a group of armed Trump supporters surrounded the home of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson chanting “stop the steal” and other pro-Trump slogans. Mr Kerik’s plan specifically targeted Ms Benson, a Democrat, with false allegations that she violated Michigan law by ordering county clerks to “delete all electronic records” pertaining to the 2020 election.
Asked to comment on Mr Kerik’s plan to target the homes of secretaries of state with protests, Ms Benson told The Independent she would “never forget the moment armed protestors gathered outside [her] home in the dark of night last December, nor the images of the tragedy at our US Capitol on January 6”. [more]
