Thread by @nimkef

21 Jan 2022

The draft executive order is dated 16 Dec 2020 & is consistent with proposals Sidney Powell made to Trump

18 Dec 2020
Powell, Michael Flynn, Trump admin lawyer Emily Newman & Patrick Byrne met w/ Trump in the Oval Office

H/T @seth_hettena

politico.com/news/2022/01/2…

In that meeting, Powell urged Trump to seize voting machines and to appoint her as a special counsel to investigate the election

The draft executive order credulously cites conspiracy theories about election fraud in Georgia and Michigan, as well as debunked notions about Dominion voting machines

The order empowers the defense secretary [Chris Miller?] to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records required for retention under” a US law that relates to preservation of election records.

The draft executive order also cites two classified documents: National Security Presidential Memoranda 13 and 21.

NSPM 13 governs the Pentagon’s offensive cyber operations. NSPM 21 makes small adjustments to 13, and the two docs are viewed within the executive branch as a pair.

The fact that the draft executive order’s author knew about the existence of Memorandum 21 suggests that they had access to information about sensitive government secrets, the person told POLITICO.

“The heinous attack that took place yesterday at the United States Capitol. Like all Americans, I was outraged and sickened by the violence, lawlessness and mayhem. I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building & expel the intruders”

20 Jan 2022

Jan. 6 select cmte sent a letter saying Trump’s defense secretary, Chris Miller, “has testified under oath that the President never contacted him at any time on January 6th, and never, at any time, issued him any order to deploy the National Guard”

2 Feb 2021

Early evening on Friday, Dec. 18 "How the hell did Sidney get in the building?" White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann grumbled from the outer Oval Office as Sidney Powell and her entourage strutted by to visit the president.

axios.com/trump-oval-off…

President Trump's private schedule hadn't included appointments for Powell or the others:

former national security adviser Michael Flynn
former Overstock[.]com CEO Patrick Byrne
former Trump administration official, Emily Newman

As Powell and the others entered the Oval Office that evening, Herschmann — a wealthy business executive and former partner at Kasowitz Benson & Torres who'd been pulled out of quasi-retirement to advise Trump — quietly slipped in behind them.

The hours to come would pit the insurgent conspiracists against a handful of White House lawyers and advisers

Powell began w/ the claim that now has her facing a $1.3B defamation lawsuit: She told Trump that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged their machines to flip votes from Trump to Biden and that it was part of an international communist plot to steal the election for the Democrats

Powell waved an affidavit from the pile of papers in her lap, claiming it contained testimony from someone involved in the development of rigged voting machines in Venezuela.

She proposed declaring a national security emergency, granting her and her cabal top-secret security clearances and using the U.S. government to seize Dominion’s voting machines.

"Hold on a minute, Sidney," Herschmann interrupted from the back of the Oval. "You're part of the Rudy team, right? Is your theory that the Democrats got together and changed the rules, or is it that there was foreign interference in our election?"

Giuliani's legal efforts, had largely focused on allegations of misconduct by corrupt Democrats and election officials.

"It's foreign interference," Powell insisted, then added: "Rudy hasn't understood what this case is about until just now."

In disbelief, Herschmann yelled out to an aide in the outer Oval Office. "Get Pat down here immediately!" Several minutes later, White House counsel Pat Cipollone walked into the Oval. He looked at Byrne and said, "Who are you?"

They needed to dial in one of the campaign's lawyers, Herschmann said, and Trump campaign lawyer Matt Morgan was patched in via speakerphone.

Trump's personal assistant summoned WH staff secretary Derek Lyons to join the meeting & asked him to bring a copy of a 2018 executive order the Powell group kept citing as the key to victory. Lyons agreed w/ Cipollone & the other officials that Powell's theories were nonsensical

Finally Herschmann had enough. "Why the fuck do you keep standing up and screaming at me?" he shot back at Flynn. "If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down." Flynn sat back down.

At one point, with Flynn shouting, Byrne raised his hand to talk. He stood up and turned around to face Herschmann. "You're a quitter," he said. "You've been interfering with everything. You've been cutting us off."

"Do you even know who the fuck I am, you idiot?" Herschmann snapped back.

"Yeah, you're Patrick Cipollone," Byrne said.

"Wrong! Wrong, you idiot!"

The staff were now on their feet, standing behind one of the couches and facing the Powell crew at the Resolute Desk. Cipollone stood to Herschmann's left. Lyons, on his last day on the job, stood to Herschmann's right.

Every judge is corrupt, she claimed. We can't rely on them. The White House lawyers couldn't believe what they were hearing. "That's your argument?" a stunned Herschmann said. "Even the judges we appointed? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

Powell and Flynn began trashing the FBI as well, and the Justice Department under Attorney General Bill Barr, telling Trump that neither could be trusted. Both institutions, they said, were corrupt, and Trump needed to fire the leadership and get in new people he could trust.

Byrne, wearing jeans, a hoodie and a neck gaiter, piped up with his own conspiracy: "I know how this works. I bribed Hillary Clinton $18 million on behalf of the FBI for a sting operation."

Herschmann stared at the eccentric millionaire. "What the hell are you talking about? Why would you say something like that?" Byrne brought up the bizarre Clinton bribery claim several more times during the meeting to the astonishment of White House lawyers.

Trump asked: You guys are offering me nothing. These guys are at least offering me a chance. They’re saying they have the evidence. Why not try this? The president seemed truly to believe the election was stolen, and his overriding sentiment was, let's give this a shot.

"How exactly are you going to do this?" an exasperated Herschmann asked again, later in the conversation. Newman again cited the 2018 executive order, which prompted Herschmann to question out loud whether she was even a lawyer.

Then Byrne chimed in: "There are guys with big guns and badges who can get these things." Herschmann couldn't believe it. "What are you, three years old?" he asked.

To help adjudicate, Trump then patched in the national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, on speakerphone. Trump's personal assistant brought O'Brien into the call with no explanation of what madness would await him.

O'Brien intervened at one point to say he saw no evidence to support Powell's notion of declaring a national security emergency to seize voting machines. There was so much fiery crosstalk it was hard for anyone on the telephone to follow the conversation.

Trump also added to the call his personal lawyer Giuliani & WH CoS Mark Meadows. Meadows indicated he was trying to wrap his mind around what exactly Powell's role would entail. He told Powell she would have to fill out the SF-86 questionnaire before starting as special counsel

The sense in the room was that Trump might actually greenlight this extraordinary proposal.

The Oval Office portion of the meeting had dragged on for nearly 3h, beyond 9pm. Arguments became so heated Giuliani, still on the phone, at one point told everyone to calm down. One participant recalled: "When Rudy's the voice of reason, you know the meeting's not going well."

Giuliani told Trump he was going to come over to the White House. The president, having forgotten about the others on the line, hung up and cut multiple people off the call.

"Rudy," he said, turning to Giuliani, "Sidney was just in the Oval telling the president you don't know what the fuck you're doing. Right, Sidney?" He turned to Powell: "Why don't you tell Rudy to his face?"

It was after midnight by the time the WH officials had finally said their piece. They left that night fully prepared that Trump might still name Sidney Powell special counsel. You have our advice, they told the president before walking out. You decide who to listen to.

The words "Presidential Findings" are in the title.

It reads: "I, Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, find..."

That is the language of a covert intelligence finding, said David Priess, a former CIA officer and presidential briefer.

https://twitter.com/seth_hettena/status/1486502248016347136?s=20

Presidents are required to issue "findings" prior to undertaking any covert action and notify Congress.

The CIA runs covert actions. However, presidents can decide "that another agency is more likely to achieve a particular objective"

https://twitter.com/seth_hettena/status/1486502250805559299?s=20

19 Nov 2020

Powell posted some of her so-called evidence on Twitter. It consisted of three screenshots of an affidavit that she said was signed by a former military official from Venezuela about elections there.

nytimes.com/2020/11/19/tec…

26 Jan 2021

Days before the protest, all frmr defense secretaries warned the Pentagon not to get involved in the peaceful transition of power, after Michael Flynn had raised the possibility w/ Trump of declaring martial law to “rerun” the election.

washingtonpost.com/national-secur…

[Interesting, seems the Powell, Flynn, Byrne WH meeting is what triggered the 3 Jan 2021 open letter signed by Ashton Carter, Dick Cheney, William Cohen, Mark Esper, Robert Gates, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, Leon Panetta, William Perry and Donald Rumsfeld]

washingtonpost.com/opinions/10-fo…

The restrictions the Pentagon placed on Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, commanding general of the DC National Guard also contributed to the delay. He needed to wait for approval from McCarthy and acting defense secretary Chris Miller before dispatching troops

Had he not been restricted, Walker said he could have dispatched the DC Guard sooner. Asked how quickly troops could have reached the Capitol, which is 2 mi from the DC Guard HQ at the Armory, Walker said, “With all deliberate speed — I mean, they’re right down the street.”

The request came at 1:49 PM, Sund called Walker to say rioters were about to breach the building

It would take nearly 3 hours before Miller authorized the DC Guard to “re-mission” & help the Capitol Police establish a perimeter around the Capitol. They arrived around 5:30 PM

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the details of the preparations, said the military would be “absolutely nowhere near the Capitol building” because “we don’t want to send the wrong message.”

Pentagon officials were also concerned that sending Guard troops who answered to the president into the Capitol during the riot could give the impression that the military was aiding Trump’s supporters in a coup.

In a Jan 5 memo Army secretary Ryan McCarthy, Walker’s direct superior, prohibited him from deploying the quick reaction force on his own & any rollout would first require a “concept of operation,” an exceptional requirement given the force is supposed to respond to emergencies

McCarthy was restricted by his superior, Miller. A Jan 4 memo prohibited McCarthy from deploying DC Guard members w/ weapons, helmets, body armor or riot control agents w/o Miller's approval. McCarthy retained power to deploy the quick reaction force “only as a last resort”

12 May 2021

During a meeting w/ Trump on 3 Jan 2021, Miller told Trump of Bowser's request after Trump asked if anyone had asked for additional support from the National Guard.

newsweek.com/trump-told-chr…

"Fill it and do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators that were executing their constitutionally protected rights," Miller said Trump told him on January 3.

Miller said he intentionally didn't station troops at the Capitol so as not to fuel the narrative that they could be "co-opted" into overthrowing the government.

Miller pushed back on the belief that the response time was unacceptable and said in his written testimony that anyone with an understanding of military deployments "will recognize how rapid our response was."

In response to a line of questioning from Representative Byron Donalds, he said he believed analysts would find it is one of the "most expedient deployments" in National Guard modern history.

22 Jan 2021
By Adam Ciralsky

In the final days of the Trump admin, a reporter rode shotgun with the outgoing acting defense secretary, Chris Miller, the man who, under the distracted eye of his commander in chief, became America’s de facto guardian

vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/e…

Trump, in those final weeks in office, hadn’t simply dented the guardrails of governance. He’d demolished them. In order to watch things up close, I sought and secured a front-row seat to what was happening inside the Department of Defense, the only institution with the reach

and the tools—2.1 million troops and weapons of every shape and size—to counter any moves to forestall or reverse the democratic process. I came away both relieved and deeply concerned by what I witnessed.

On the evening of 5 Jan 2021 the acting secretary of defense, Chris Miller, was at the White House with his chief of staff, Kash Patel. They were meeting with President Trump on “an Iran issue,” Miller told me. But then the conversation switched gears.

Trump, Miller recalled, asked how many troops the Pentagon planned to turn out the following day. “We’re like, ‘We’re going to provide any National Guard support that the District requests,’” Miller responded.

“And [Trump] goes, ‘You’re going to need 10,000 people.’ No, I’m not talking bullshit. He said that. And we’re like, ‘Maybe. But you know, someone’s going to have to ask for it.’”

At that point Miller remembered the president telling him, “‘You do what you need to do. You do what you need to do.’ He said, ‘You’re going to need 10,000.’ That’s what he said. Swear to God.”

On the morning of 6 Jan 2021, Miller was hopeful that the day would prove uneventful. But decades in special operations and intelligence had honed his senses. “It was the first day I brought an overnight bag to work.

My wife was like, ‘What are you doing there?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know when I’m going to be home.’” To hear Patel tell it, they were on autopilot for most of the day: “We had talked to [the president] in person the day before, on the phone the day before, and two days before that.

We were given clear instructions. We had all our authorizations. We didn’t need to talk to the president. I was talking to [Trump’s chief of staff, Mark] Meadows, nonstop that day.”

Miller said when Trump made him head of the Pentagon, Nov 2020, “the bar was pretty low.” He had 3 goals. “No military coup, no major war, and no troops in the street. The ‘no troops in the street’ thing changed dramatically about 14:30.” [Sund called Walker at 13:49]

The day began with a lull. “We had meetings upon meetings. We were monitoring it. Then everybody converges on my office: [Joint Chiefs of Staff] chairman [Mark Milley], Secretary of the Army [Ryan] McCarthy, the crew just converges.”

And as intelligence started cycling in, things went from watch and see to “a current op.” Miller recalled, “We had already decided we’re going to need to activate the National Guard, and that’s where the fog and friction comes in.”

What did Miller think of the criticism that the Pentagon had dragged its feet in sending in the cavalry? He bristled. “Oh, that is complete horseshit. I gotta tell you, I cannot wait to go to the Hill and have those conversations with senators and representatives.”

Miller said, “I know when something doesn’t smell right, and I know when we’re covering our asses. Been there. I know for an absolute fact that historians are going to look…at the actions that we did on that day and go, ‘Those people had their game together.’”

Miller and Patel both insisted, in separate conversations, that they neither tried nor needed to contact the president on January 6; they had already gotten approval to deploy forces.

However, another senior defense official remembered things quite differently, “They couldn’t get through. They tried to call [Trump].”

The implication: Either Trump was shell-shocked, effectively abdicating his role as commander in chief, or he was deliberately stiff-arming some of his top officials because he was, in effect, siding with the insurrectionists and their cause of denying Biden’s victory.

Ezra Cohen, another of Miller’s top confidants, believes that his colleagues’ words and deeds may be well and good, but are beside the point: “The president threw us under the bus. And when I say ‘us,’ I don’t mean only us political appointees or only us Republicans.

He threw America under the bus. He caused a lot of damage to the fabric of this country. Did he go and storm the Capitol himself? No. But he, I believe, had an opportunity to tamp things down and he chose not to. When you’re in charge, you’re responsible for what goes wrong.”

Continuous, real-time access to a Trump cabinet member—especially during that tumultuous period—was rare. But on 4 Jan 2021, I made an overture to Pentagon officials. Could I spend the remaining days of the Trump administration embedded with Miller?

I also requested face time with his two closest aides, who were known throughout Washington as staunch Trump loyalists, highly critical of the so-called deep state: Kashyap “Kash” Patel, Miller’s 40-year-old chief of staff, who’d been an aide to Congressman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)

and Ezra Cohen, 34, the under secretary of defense for intelligence (USDI), who came aboard on National Security Adviser Mike Flynn’s watch and was later fired by NSC chief H.R. McMaster.

Miller agreed, and I raced to DC for COVID testing so I could join him. Like many others, I had been worried Trump, using domestic havoc or a foreign military skirmish as pretext, might move to delay Biden’s inauguration—or actually attempt a putsch by invoking martial law

Having worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and later as an attorney for the CIA (before I began my career in journalism), I understood the national security wiring diagram.

And I recognized that in the absence of the vice president invoking the 25th Amendment, Secretary Miller was the one person standing between an unhinged president and a full-scale national meltdown.

While waiting to begin, I sought a gut check from a senior national security official. “If I was writing your headline, it would be, ‘Who really is the secretary of defense? Chris Miller? Kash Patel? Ezra Cohen? Or [Chairman] Mark Milley?’

I don’t know how to answer that, frankly. The scuttlebutt is that Miller is the good guy who’s the frontman and it’s Cohen and Patel who are calling all the shots.”

With Trump MIA, who was protecting the US? Was Miller still receiving orders from Trump? What to make of Cohen & Patel, who in the Pentagon were referred to as zampolit, a Soviet term used to describe political enforcers who were deployed to strategic locations to ensure loyalty?

I tagged along with Miller and his team as they went about their last days in office (12-19 Jan 2021). In addition, it was agreed that virtually everything would be on the record and on tape: Miller, Cohen, and Patel wore lapel microphones during our conversations.

"When we came in here, they literally expected Ezra and Kash to have blood dripping from their mouths because they just, like, ripped the throat out of a baby,” Miller said. “Then all of a sudden, they’re like, ‘Jeez, they’re actually willing to take on the machine.’”

Miller, 55, had commanded an airborne Special Forces battalion and fought in some of the earliest combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. (3 current officials confirmed Miller had also served w/ Task Force Orange, a military intel unit so secret its name is rarely uttered.)

[US Army Intel Support Activity (USAISA), aka:

Intel Support Activity
Mission Support Activity
The Activity
Task Force Orange
Army of Northern Virginia
Office of Military Support

is a US Army SpecOps unit that serves as the intel gathering part of JSOC]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellige…

Miller had labored in relative obscurity for decades, until 9 Nov 2020, when Trump tweeted: “I am pleased to announce that Chris Miller, the highly respected Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, will be Acting Secretary of Defense, effective immediately.”

Trump added, “Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service.” (Esper’s dismissal had been brewing since the summer, when he issued a mealy-mouthed apology for participating in a June 1 stroll w/ Trump across Lafayette Square. 3 top aides left with him)

“I’ll just be straight up. My family’s not huge fans of the Trump administration.” Miller added, “It’s really bothered my daughters and my wife. My son, he’ll be like, ‘Holy cow, they called you a stuffed-shirt moron today.’”

He then directed his ire at the cottage industry of retired military officers who questioned his fitness in the press, including some of those who had trained him, earned his loyalty, and shaped his character: “You fucking assholes. If I fail, you failed.”

One highly placed source worried less about Miller himself and more about his having “to navigate around” Cohen and Patel—“these Svengalis chained to him by the White House to make sure that he doesn’t do too much completely honest, forthright stuff.”

People across the national security spectrum said: You don’t have to like, respect, or agree with Cohen and Patel, but you underestimate their drive and Machiavellian prowess at your own peril.

This trio, according to some observers, was made up of anti-deep-staters who, once Trump had decapitated the Pentagon leadership, were going to come in and try to cut the fat, show the Chinese and Iranians who’s boss, pull American troops out of war zones, and

allow the president to deploy forces when and where he damn well pleased—even if they only had a couple of months to do it.

11 Jan 2021

We stopped in Oak Ridge, TN, home to the Y-12 National Security Complex, aka the Secret City, to assess the viability of the nuclear arsenal. Miller, Patel & Energy Sec Dan Brouillette visited a building where nuclear weapon components are assembled & disassembled

In Smyrna, at a meeting w/ members of the Tennessee National Guard, a military aide solemnly approached Miller and whispered in his ear. That was the moment, Miller later told me, when he gave the order to arm the National Guardsmen protecting the Capitol and members of Congress.

“I have responsibility for everything. Something goes wrong, I own it completely, 110%,” Miller said. “You want to push [authorization down to] the people on the ground that are seeing things happen when I’m sitting at the Pentagon or in my plane.

So I made that decision to push it down to Secretary of the Army McCarthy so that they could move faster.” In short order the Guard’s presence in Washington and other capitals ballooned.

I then showed him the long-lens photo of the MyPillow CEO, Lindell, coming into the White House—with a memo referencing “martial law.” He quickly did the math, and figured he and Patel left the grounds before the picture was taken

When I inquired about the meaning of the words “Move Kash Patel to CIA Acting” on Lindell’s briefing papers, he chuckled: “Maybe he’s got a new job then, right? Get out of my hair. That’s funny. That’s MyPillow guy? Huh, okay.”

Cohen and others had discovered that the Joint Chiefs were creating their own “security compartments” containing operational planning details “for the express purpose of hiding key info from career civilian & political leaders in the Pentagon” up to & including the Sec of Defense

“That means that policymakers were basing their decisions on partial information. It’s very dangerous and irresponsible, and that’s something I’ve actually highlighted in my conversations with [Biden’s] transition team,” said Cohen.

To me it had all the elements of a Trump fever dream: The military and intelligence establishment was somehow scheming against the renegades. That is, until two other senior national security officials—with Miller and company—confirmed Cohen’s assertion.

Miller says “The entire system, the intelligence community [included], is complicit in setting up all these compartments—so that only very select people actually have perspective and access to the entire picture.

And then your question is, ‘Well, who are these people that have the complete picture?’ I felt like I finally did as acting SECDEF—to a point. I’m sure there’s still some stuff that was being compartmented. But I don’t know that for a fact.”

20 Jan 2021

President-elect Joe Biden’s team denied Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller’s request for transition space at the Pentagon after he leaves office on Wednesday, a courtesy normally extended at the Defense Department.

msn.com/en-us/news/pol…

The Biden transition told Miller’s team that it had denied his request for transition office space for himself and a handful of aides, in a reversal from past practice, according to a senior Defense Department official.

Outgoing secretaries typically get office space at the Pentagon for several weeks to handle any final tasks that remain undone by Inauguration Day.

Biden’s team didn’t give a reason for the denial, though the official said Miller’s team believed it was payback over the contention by Biden and his staff that the Trump administration sought to delay and obstruct the transition at the Defense Department.

Early in January, incoming White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the transition team was encountering “intransigence” in the department and Office of Management and Budget, as well as “other places that we’ve had ongoing concern.”

A transition official denied the ongoing spat played any role in the decision. The official acknowledged it had been typical in the past to provide the office space but said Miller’s role as acting SECDEF, along w/ reduced staffing because of the pandemic, made it inappropriate

intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/…

I wonder if Miller got Bin Laden's cell number from Sater

https://twitter.com/supersleuthgrl/status/1428601089276977157?s=20

Interesting, 6 Jan 2021 brought things full circle for Miller

"Miller began his military career as an enlisted Infantryman in the Army Reserve in 1983 and also served in the District of Columbia National Guard as a Military Policeman"

defense.gov/About/Biograph…

"Upon retirement from the Army in 2014, Mr. Miller worked for over two years as a defense contractor providing clandestine Special Operations and Intelligence expertise directly to the Under Secretaries of Defense for Intelligence and Policy."

Who's the contractor?

18 Aug 2021

Chris Miller now says talk of a full withdrawal was a “play” to convince a Taliban-led government to keep U.S. counterterrorism forces.

defenseone.com/policy/2021/08…

President Donald Trump’s top national security officials never intended to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, according to new statements by Chris Miller, Trump’s last acting defense secretary.

Sent the day of the WH meeting, 18 Dec 2020

Who sent it and was it before or after the meeting?

https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1489242352585687040?s=20&t=84Cgd1D5vbS7BCoVtsC33A

https://twitter.com/nimkef/status/1489273798939533314?s=20&t=84Cgd1D5vbS7BCoVtsC33A

18 Dec 2020 memo

washingtonpost.com/context/dec-18…