ZeroHedge.com<\/p>\n
Update: Forty members (up from 29 earlier) of the Electoral College on Tuesday signed a letter demanding an intelligence briefing on Russian interference in the election ahead of their Dec. 19 vote.<\/p>\n
As The Hill reports<\/a>, ten electors originally signed the letter when it was published Monday, <\/a>and 30 more have since added their names.<\/strong><\/p>\n Newly Added Electors:<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The open letter \u2014 led by Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) \u2014 urged Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to give a detailed briefing on President-elect Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe further require a briefing on all investigative findings, as these matters directly impact the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to serve as President of the United States,\u201d the letter read.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Clinton campaign applauded the effort Monday, saying it had repeatedly warned about Russian interference aimed at swaying the election in Trump\u2019s favor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n However, while 40 electors would be enough to turn the election in Hillary Clinton’s favor, the so-called “Hamilton Electors” are almost uniformly Democratic voters anyway and so with Ashley-Madison fan Chris Suprun the only Trump turncoat<\/a>, for now the ‘soft coup’ remains a long shot.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not looking to be satisfied with just the vote on Dec. 19 or 20, but on January of 2030, when Mr. Trump has either served no time, one term or two terms,\u201d Suprun told The Hill. \u201cHistory is going to judge my actions on whether he turned out to be Ronald Reagan, Herbert Hoover or Richard Nixon.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n But, as The Hill adds<\/a>, Republican electors are coming under intense pressure to change their votes:<\/p>\n Bob Muller, a GOP county chairman in North Carolina and a Trump elector, said he\u2019s gotten correspondence from \u201ceverywhere from Maine to California\u201d asking him to vote differently.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI just ignore them,\u201d <\/strong>Muller said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So far, only a few Electoral College voters have publicly declared that they will not back the candidates that their states supported \u2014 including just one of the 37 Trump voters that the self-styled Hamilton Electors, a group of mostly Democrats, need to make any noise on Monday.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And even if the rogue electors achieve their aims, they would only succeed in sending the election to a Republican-majority House, which would almost certainly certify Trump\u2019s victory.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Virtually all Republican electors reached by The Hill said they will vote enthusiastically for Trump.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m voting how the people of Florida have told me to vote,\u201d<\/strong> said Brian Ballard, a Florida elector who raised money for Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio during the GOP primary. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone who isn\u2019t. I appreciate people using First Amendment rights to reach out and try to convince me otherwise, but I\u2019m obligated to support Trump because he won Florida.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAlso, I love the guy and want him to be president.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Faithless electors are rare but not unheard of in American history.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n At this point, the effort appears to be more about undermining Trump,<\/strong> complicating his ability to govern and following personal convictions \u2014 and less about actually winning the Electoral College for another candidate.<\/p>\n *\u00a0 *\u00a0 *<\/p>\n As we detailed earlier, Donald Trump could have the election legally stolen from him on either December 19th when the Electoral College casts their votes or on January 6th when a joint session of Congress gathers to count those votes. As The Economic Collapse blog’s Michael Snyder<\/a> notes, the establishment is in full-blown panic mode at this point, and they seem to have settled on “Russian interference in the election” as the angle that they will use to unleash this ‘soft coup’ as today, the Hill reports<\/a> more Democratic electors are joining the call for an intelligence briefing before they cast their votes for president on Monday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Twenty-nine electors now are pressuring Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to disclose more information about the CIA\u2019s conclusion that Russian interference helped sway the election in President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s favor.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On Monday, 10 electors \u2014 spearheaded by Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) \u2014 wrote an open letter to Clapper, demanding more information ahead of next week’s vote.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Electors require to know from the intelligence community whether there are ongoing investigations into ties between Donald Trump, his campaign or associates, and Russian government interference in the election, the scope of those investigations, how far those investigations may have reached, and who was involved in those investigations,\u201d<\/strong> the letter reads.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe further require a briefing on all investigative findings, as these matters directly impact the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to serve as President of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Twenty-eight Democrats and one Republican<\/strong> have now signed the letter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n On Monday, the Clinton campaign voiced support for the effort.<\/p>\n \u201cEach day that month, our campaign decried the interference of Russia in our campaign and its evident goal of hurting our campaign to aid Donald Trump,\u201d said John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, in a statement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cDespite our protestations, this matter did not receive the attention it deserved by the media in the campaign. We now know that the CIA has determined Russia’s interference in our elections was for the purpose of electing Donald Trump. This should distress every American.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n But ultimately, as The Economic Collapse blog’s Michael Snyder warns,<\/a> this is not about Russian interference in our election.<\/strong><\/p>\n Rather, this is all about the elite doing whatever is necessary to stop Donald Trump.\u00a0 The elite are going to fight against him every step of the way, and they are never, ever going to give up.\u00a0 This is a point that I made during an interview with Alex Jones on Monday<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n\n
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