Trump allies explored sending armed private contractors to seize voting machines in 2020 election

Supporters on the fringes of former President Trump’s circle explored seeking sweeping authority after the 2020 election to enlist armed private contractors to seize and inspect voting machines and election data with the assistance of U.S. marshals, according to a draft letter asking the president to grant them permission. Marshals Service would assist the effort, and the employees of private companies authorized to perform the work would be “granted the authority to be armed when conducting these investigations since most of the operations would be conducted under hostile conditions.” Two of the three cyber-security companies named in the letter are led by men who had been part of the weeks-long efforts to find evidence of election fraud: Russell Ramsland of Dallas-based Allied Security Operations Group, who would go on to conduct an “audit” of the Antrim County, Mich., results that the Trump campaign cited as proof of fraud; and retired Army Col. Phil Waldron of Rising Tide LLC, who worked with the then-president’s attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, on efforts to persuade state lawmakers and Republicans in Congress to examine the election results. “We would never approach any potential evaluation of a cyber incident with a partisan view.” Two hours after the email was sent to Logan and Penrose on Nov. 21, 2020, a separate message was sent to pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood with the subject line “suggested language for ‘cover letter.’” The email to Wood, a central figure in the Trump campaign’s effort to promote conspiracy theories about the 2020 election in Georgia, included an attached letter with the same language that was written as if it came from an attorney rather than the president. “This appears to be sort of the fever dream of someone who either isn’t a lawyer or someone who didn’t do very well in law school.” Former U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Christopher Krebs, who was fired by Trump shortly after he made comments affirming the security of election machines, said the Nov. 21 draft appears to have been written by someone unfamiliar with executive orders and the authority they can and cannot grant.