In another attempt to upend the 2020 election results, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani asked the Department of Homeland Security to seize voting machines, Axios reports.
According to the news outlet, a source familiar with the request, Giuliani on Thursday called Ken Cuccinelli, second in command at the DHS, and asked him whether DHS could seize voting machines,
Cuccinelli responded that DHS does not have that authority, the source said.
Giuliani is part of a dwindling remnant of Trump loyalists who is trying to act on his continued protests about the election.
The New York Times reported Friday night that “Trump discussed commandeering voting machines and appointing conspiracy-minded election lawyer Sidney Powell as special counsel to inspect the machines.”
The Times also reported that during a chaotic meeting at the Oval Office, the president considered the idea of invoking martial law to negate Biden’s victory.
In the six weeks since President-elect Joe Biden won the White House, Trump has been scheming and spreading falsehoods as he seeks to overturn the election while seeming unmoved by the grim climb in coronavirus cases that has led to more than 316,000 deaths in the United States while countless Americans struggle to keep food on the table.
His mere entertainment of invoking martial law to stay in power underscores how laser-focused he still is on his own interests at a time when the nation is mired in crisis.