LETTER: A seditious conspiracy of Jan. 6th

Editor, Register-Mail: "Come to DC on Jan 6th, will be Wild!" Trump seized on the anger of deceived followers, and united a blended-ideology of right-wing, anti-govt-extremist groups, Proud Boys, Oath Keeper & others to join in mass violence, to perpetuate a bloody-coup against our government, so Trump could stay in power. There were permits for rallies on 1/22 & 1/23/21, but those dates would be after Joseph R. Biden's inauguration on 1/20/21. That would be too late for Trump's schemes. On 12/14/20, the Electoral College certified the vote counts: 306 votes for Joe Biden; Donald Trump 232 votes, but Trump had already told his supporters that IF he lost, the election of 11/03/20 had been rigged, so his radicalized supporters believed him, because beginning that evening, Trump told his followers the Big Lie repeatedly, "the election HAD been stolen from him"! Trump was blatantly told he'd lost, that he must concede, all lawsuits, and illegal attempts to hold onto power had failed. Trump needed an armed revolution to back him up.

Trump demanded of DOJ, Wm Barr, AG, that he seize voting machines; Barr refused, "there is no factual basis or legal authority to seize machines." Barr resigned. A surreptitious meeting in the Oval Office 12/18/20 with Trump: Mike Flynn, Sidney Powell & Rudy Giuliani, ragtag con-artists, had come in with an Executive draft order for the government to seize voting machines, and to call out martial law, if necessary. Cipollone, Herschmann & Derek Lyons walked in on the meeting, which became "a free for all", with screaming & name calling. The meeting moved from the Oval office to the Trump residence, 'Yellow Oval'. In the morning hours of 12/19/20, Trump famously tweeted, "Come to DC on Jan 6th, will be Wild", the lame-duck Commander-in-Chief inciting duped followers to seditious-conspiracy. Steve Bannon announced on 1/5/21, "All HELL is going to break loose tomorrow." On 1/4/21, Kylie Kremer, a rally organizer, emailed Lindell, "it cannot get out that Trump will urge his followers to go to the Capitol on 1/6/21." Stephen Miller & Trump planned & changed his prepared speech in the hours before he spoke at the Ellipse, marshalling the mob, the armed insurrectionists to storm the Capitol and Stop the Steal!

Trump is now attempting to pressure Jan 6th witnesses to change their testimony; attempted witness-tampering is a felony and has been referred to DOJ. The president's oath is to faithfully execute our laws; Trump worked in opposition to our Constitution constantly, he's now announced he's running for president again in 2024. — Trish Forsyth Voss, rural Victoria

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: LETTER: A seditious conspiracy of Jan. 6th