Had the coup plotters of January 6, 2021, been successful, today the United States would have been under the rule of dictator Donald Trump. The traitorous retired General Michael Flynn would be vice president and be granted by Trump with unlimited powers to order arrests, seize private property, and rule states and cities by decree. Political purges of the armed forces, state and local governments, the courts, and corporations would be de rigueur.
It is now known that the director of the U.S. Secret Service tolerated the politicization of his agency under Trump to the point that agents, including those who are sworn to protect the president, vice president, and other designated “protectees,” became full-blown MAGA-hatted racists and far-right partisans. For example, in December 2019, Trump appointed Deputy Assistant Director of the Secret Service Anthony Ornato, [a career civil service member, to the political post of Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, a position that entailed Ornato assisting in Trump's re-election. Secret Service Director James Murray raised no objections to Ornato being tapped for such a political position. Murray continues to remain in his job under President Biden. And, as if that is not enough of a reason for concern, Ornato is back at the Secret Service as Assistant Director in the Office of Training. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, someone with close family ties to unsavory far-right Cuban exile organizations in south Florida, has made no move to dismiss either Ornato or Murray. It should be recalled that it was partly from this community of far-right Cuban expatriates that the plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963 originated.
Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig has published a book on the Secret Service, titled "Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service," that delves into the right-wing radicalization of the Secret Service. It now appears that some key members of the Secret Service were either in on the plot by Trump, Flynn, and others to overthrow the government on January 6 or were quiescent in withholding intelligence on the scope of the coup plan. In yet another example where Hollywood was able to foresee the role of a compromised Secret Service in a plot against the government, two movies that premiered in 2013, "Olympus Has Fallen," and "White House Down," respectively have as their plots a former Secret Service agent-turned-private contractor working with a hostile foreign intelligence service and a Presidential Detail Special Agent-in-Charge working with a white nationalist group to seize control of the White House. The role of the Secret Service in the January 6 fascist coup attempt is a case of life imitating art.
Jessica Watkins, a leader of the Oath Keepers who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to prevent the certification of the constitutionally-mandated certification of the Electoral College vote that recognized the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as president and vice president, claimed that she coordinated her activities on January 6 with the Secret Service, an allegation that Watkins' lawyer later retracted after swift denials from Director Murray, someone who cannot be trusted based on his actions with regard to Ornato and permitting his agency to become riddled with pro-Trump racists and far-right activists.
It has been reported by Leonnig in her new book that Secret Service agents actually became so close to members of the Trump family, they engaged in sexual affairs with Vanessa Trump, the now ex-wife of Donald Trump, Jr., and Trump daughter Tiffany Trump.
Based on a grand jury subpoena served on Twitter requiring the firm to unmask the owner of an anonymous Twitter parody account mocking Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA), we know that even the career prosecutors of the Department of Justice were infiltrated by Trump political loyalists. Anyone professional among their ranks would have leaked such an outrage to the media.
Republican opposition to a January 6 commission
The reason why House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell oppose the creation of an outside commission to investigate January 6 is that such a panel, if properly constituted, would likely determine that January 6 was neither a "riot" nor a spontaneous "insurrection" but a coordinated pre-planned attempt by Trump, members of his Cabinet, federal law enforcement, the Departments of Defense and State, GOP members of Congress, and other conspirators to overthrow the U.S. Congress and execute Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and then-presumptive Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, at a minimum.
For Trump and his co-conspirators to eliminate any constitutional challenges, he would have had to eliminate the number two and three in the line of presidential succession, namely, Pence and Pelosi.
It is now known that Republican members of the Senate and House provided moral support and even logistical support to the coup plotters. For freshmen GOP Representatives Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), this included providing the conspirators with details of key offices and facilities within the U.S. Capitol complex and availing to them reconnaissance on January 5 of tunnels between the Capitol and House and Senate office buildings and the Library of Congress.
We are told that Pence's Secret Service detail rushed him off to a "safe room" in the Capitol to avoid his being lynched by members of mob who were intent on having him publicly swing from a sturdily-constructed gallows hoisted on the west grounds of the Capitol building. With the Secret Service compromised by Trump loyalists, the choice of a safe room for Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, and their children, all present for the Electoral College certification, was a security dilemma. After Biden's inauguration, Pence and his family were forced into hiding in the U.S. Virgin Islands due to death threats from Trump loyalists.
A 9/11 Commission with the authority to recommend Republican senators and representatives for prosecution for their active knowledge of and participation in a coup d'état against the U.S. government could likely see several GOP members of the Senate and House, including Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Representatives Taylor-Greene, Boebert, Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Louis Gohmert (R-TX), and Devin Nunes being referred to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. McCarthy and McConnell are only interested in the numbers of their respective caucuses, not in preserving constitutional rule in the United States. Resignations of their colleagues after criminal indictments would mean their hopes of winning back the Senate and House in 2022 would dip drastically. They both know that January 6 was a serious coup attempt and have even stated as much in statements on the floor of their respective houses. But neither McCarthy nor McConnell want the American people to ever know how complicit members of their caucus were in supporting the armed and bloody overthrow of America's constitutional republic.
The coup plotters' plans for bloodshed
While some have called the January 6 disruptors of Congress "insurrectionists"—with Representative Andrew Clyde (R-GA), a first-term Georgia gun dealer referring to the mob as "tourists"—their true designation should be "coup plotters" bent on bloodshed. The history of right-wing coups and attempted coups is one of ensuring that blood flows in the streets. Examples of such coups include the 1965 military coup in Indonesia, the 1973 coup in Chile, [left] and the 1974 Ethiopian coup. Together, those three coups resulted in the executions of six of Indonesia’s top generals, Chilean President Salvador Allende, and Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie. The American fascist/white nationalist movement planned to kidnap and execute Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in a planned 2020 coup that would have also seized control over the state legislature in Lansing and killed as many Democratic lawmakers as possible, along with members of the Michigan State Police. Similar actions were planned against three other Democratic governors” Ralph Northam of Virginia, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and Roy Cooper of North Carolina.
The late American Poet Laureate Maya Angelou once said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” The Michigan coup plotters showed their cards and the January 6 coup plotters were prepared to double down on them. We now know that contrary to denials, those who stormed the U.S. Capitol were armed with more than mere bear spray. In addition to having weapons in their possession, arms and ammunition had been pre-stored in nearby Arlington, Virginia for the attack. We also know that the U.S. Capitol Police were as infiltrated with far-right coup sympathizers as were the Secret Service and the U.S. military. Several members of the Capitol Police and DC Metropolitan Police remain under investigation for their participation in the coup attempt.
Trump purged non-loyalists from the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, following the November 3 election. From that time onward, Trump expected the Pentagon to support his planned coup. Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller took no action to send military forces, including District of Columbia and Maryland National Guard troops, to protect the besieged Congress on January 6. Miller was aided in his treason by five far-right Trump loyalists who had high positions of authority in the Pentagon—Kashyap Patel, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Anthony Tata, Douglas Macgregor, and General Charles Flynn. Patel and Cohen-Watnick served on the staff of Nunes and Flynn is the brother of disgraced former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn and is, like Murray and Ornato at the Secret Service, still serving in the Biden administration as the commander of U.S. Army forces for the Indo-Pacific region in Hawaii. In December 2020, Michael Flynn actually called for Trump to impose martial law throughout the United States and re-run elections in states that Trump was contesting. These included Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Making matters worse is the fact that among those who stormed the Capitol were active duty military and reservist personnel. Recently, Marine Corps Major Christopher Warnagiris, whose past assignments included support for Marine One, the presidential helicopter, was charged with assaulting a Capitol Police officer on January 6. He joins four reservists and 41 veterans, including retirees, who have been criminally charged with storming the Capitol.
As is the case with the Secret Service Presidential Security Detail, military members with responsibility for Marine One and Air Force One are required to undergo personnel reliability background checks, which are even more extensive than those required for access to above Top Secret compartmented intelligence. The cases of Warnagiris and Ornato indicate that Trump loyalists not only penetrated but thrived in such Personnel Reliability Program (PRP) positions.
It should be taken as fact that sectors of the U.S. military backed Trump’s January 6 coup plot. Recently, 124 retired generals and admirals jointly signed as “Flag Officers 4 America” a letter questioning Biden’s mental state and legitimacy as president. It is a guarantee that such pro-Trump flag officer retirees have sympatico friends, and, as is the case with Michael Flynn, family members on active duty. One jokester, likely a retired flag officer who received the signatory request and disagreed with it, signed the latter as “Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff” prior to the far-right group of retired flag officers discovering the prank.
Pompeo’s role as the international face for a post-constitutional America
Trump’s coup attempt would have thrust Secretary of State Mike Pompeo into the role of excusing an unconstitutional seizure of power to a shocked world audience. The secretary of state has a unique role in the executive branch. The position not only entails guiding America’s foreign policy but is the senior position in the Cabinet. The presidential line of succession, after the president pro-tempore of the Senate, falls next to the secretary of state. The secretary also serves as a virtual notary for documents of importance. For example, President Richard Nixon addressed his 1974 letter of resignation to the secretary of state, Henry Kissinger.
Undoubtedly, Pompeo would have had no problem in explaining Trump’s putsch to Russian President Vladimir Putin—who has abrogated his nation’s own constitution—or the autocratic leaders of China, Turkey, India, Brazil, Hungary, or the Philippines. The United Kingdom’s right-wing Tory Prime Minister Boris Johnson would have been envious of Trump. French President Emmanuel Macron is one leader who would have pushed back, citing the role of France and the Marquis de Lafayette in the American War of Independence. We now know that prior to leaving office Trump secretly ordered U.S. troops to withdraw from nations whose leaders would not have supported his coup. They include South Korea, Japan, Germany, Australia, and Belgium. Pompeo would have been instructed by Trump to work to oust leaders who were opposed to Trump from the very beginning of his term. Macron would have been the number one target. How do we know that? Just as 124 retired U.S. admirals and generals penned an open letter stating that Biden is an illegitimate president, Macron was recently faced with a similar action. A group of over 1,000 French active duty and former military personnel, including 20 retired generals that included former Foreign Legion Commander Christian Piquemal, published an open letter to Macron on April 21. The date is significant in that it represents the 60th anniversary of a failed right-wing military coup against then-French President Charles De Gaulle. The letter addressed to Macron, his government, and members of the National Assembly warned that a similar coup and “civil war” would occur if something was not done to curb “Islamism.” The letter also supported the police against residents of ethnic urban enclaves known as banlieues.
The secret order by Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from around the world may have been intended to enable further right-wing coups in various U.S. allies in Europe and Asia. It is known that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is faced with the dilemma of far-right and even neo-Nazi infiltration of the German military and intelligence services. France is not alone in having far-right activists in its military. Belgium has a manhunt ongoing for heavily-armed Corporal Jurgen Conings, who has vowed to kill Marc Van Ranst, a virologist and COVID-19 government adviser. The situation in Belgium is similar to the United States where Trump loyalists have threatened to kill virologists and epidemiologists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health.
The close connectivity between the far-right military and the police is also endemic in the United States, where the militarization and far-right radicalization of the police have resulted in countless murders by white police officers of African Americans and Hispanics for no legal reasons. Such vigilantism by law enforcement is a hallmark of fascist or proto-fascist governments. Several current and former police officers from around the United States were charged for their roles in storming the Capitol. There may be charges against additional police officers not yet identified by the FBI.
A post-coup America
A post-coup America, one over which Trump would rule with a rubber stamp pathetic joke of a rump Congress and a acquiescent Supreme Court and gubernatorial lackeys, would resemble every dystopian fictional account of such a hell in print and on screen. We know that Trump’s politicized Secret Service down-scaled protection for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and their families. The special electronic countermeasures and counter-assault vehicles provided to past presidents-elect were not provided to Biden until almost two months after the November 3 election. In late December 2020, as the president-elect’s inauguration grew closer, his possibly-compromised Secret Service personal detail was replaced by agents who protected Biden and who he knew and trusted while serving as vice president. It has been reported that Biden personally requested the personnel change, an indication that he knew that coup talk was in the air and he was the primary target.
There is little doubt that following a successful coup, one that would have included the “shock and awe” of Pence’s body hanging from a rope on the west side of the Capitol and the bullet-ridden bodies of Pelosi, Schumer, Mitt Romney, and others being displayed in photos released to the press—as has followed other fascist coups around the world—Biden, Harris, former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and even nonagenarian Jimmy Carter, along with their wives (particularly Hillary Clinton) would have either been imprisoned or worse. When neo-Nazi Anders Breivik killed 69 members of the Norwegian Labor Party’s Youth League on an island near Oslo in 2011, he was trying to kill as many people as possible in order to wipe out an entire new generation of socialist leaders. There remains some credible evidence that Breivik could not have carried out the Youth League massacre and a fatal terrorist explosion in downtown Oslo without the help of others, possibly including those within the Norwegian security and law enforcement services.
It cannot be emphasized enough that the wives and children of many members of Congress being sworn in on January 6 were present when the coup forces stormed the Capitol. If the coup had been successful, it is open to question how many spouses and children would have escaped the Capitol building alive and unharmed. Among those who stormed the Capitol were a number of hardened criminals and sociopaths.
The prospects for Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, a bête noire for Trump loyalists, would not have been good. Nor would they have been rosy for anti-Trump Republican governors in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Vermont or objects of Trump’s derision in governors’ mansions in Michigan, New York, California, Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Virginia, and other states. Just as Putin has done with republics and regions of the Russian Federation, Trump would have ensured that every American state and territory was governed by lackeys as loyal to Trump as Governors Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas.
Trump post-coup America would have seen the First Amendment abrogated and the media placed under the jack boot of Trump and the MAGA regime. Schools, universities, newspapers, cable news, broadcasters, and lobbying groups would be purged of anti-Trumpers. Mass detention of anti-Trump activists would be the rule of the day. Bank accounts of Trump opponents would have been seized and anti-Trump companies like Amazon would have faced expropriation and transfer of their assets to the deeply criminal Trump Organization.
The Democrats who run the Congress, along with the White House, should ensure that whatever stratagem they use to investigate January 6, the process should include the ability to refer participants in the January coup attempt to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. At a minimum, these should include not only Trump and members of his administration, but Republicans in Congress who helped facilitate the coup by their actions and words. Any conspirator found guilty should, at the very least, face the rest of their miserable lives in prison without the opportunity for parole, pardon, or clemency.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2021 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
