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Friday, July 15, 2022| Byrne video disassociates Trump from Jan. 6 Area man recorded blog; to testify before committee By BOB MUDGE SENIOR WRITER VENICE ? The Donald Trump rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol wasn't supposed to be a Trump rally, according to Patrick Byrne. Byrne, who formerly owned Overstock.com, has a local connection as a property owner in Sarasota County, including Venice, Osprey and Wellen Park. In a video blog, he states he was scheduled to be a speaker at the event originally planned for Jan. 6. The purpose of it, he says in a March 15 Rumble.com video, was to explain why the certification of state electoral votes was going to be put off for a week by Vice President Mike Pence. Byrne is set to meet behind closed doors with the House Jan. 6 committee Friday to talk about his involvement with the events leading up to that day, as well as in a Dec. 18 meeting with Trump in the Oval Office at which his options to challenge the election results were discussed. The Rumble video is titled "Patrick Byrne Statement to J6 Committee Regarding December 18 Oval Office and January 4-6 Events." Byrne says that he; Englewood resident Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser; attorney Sydney Powell; and another lawyer "I call Alyssa," for whom he never provides a last name, were let into the Oval Office on Dec. 18 to provide Trump with the basis for investigating the election. They showed Trump an executive order signed by President Barack Obama in 2015 and one Trump signed in 2018, both dealing with the president's authority in the event a foreign government interferes in a U.S. election. If that happens, Byrne says, "the president can pretty much do anything he wants," including canceling or rerunning the election. Against that backdrop, the group also shared three letters from the FBI ? one on attempts by the Iranian government to gain access to U.S. voter databases; one saying it had gained access; and one about the hack into government systems through software from Texas-based SolarWinds. The initial discussion, Byrne says, was about whether the three letters triggered the executive orders. "I don't mean to suggest, by any means, was it an obvious call," he says. "It was not an obvious call ? and none of us saw it as an obvious question." Once there was a consensus that the orders applied, there  BYRNE were three questions to be answered, Byrne says: where to investigate, what to investigate and who to do the investigation. Trump wanted to go with the "lightest footprint," Byrne says: look only at the six "original" suspect counties, which he doesn't name; have the hard drives and routers there copied; and have the investigation done by people who don't wear uniforms. "Here is the only time I pushed for the heavy footprint," Byrne said. He advocated for teams of U.S. marshals and National Guard members with computer expertise to do the work because the courts and the military still had the public trust. "Let me point out what's happened is a total loss of confidence in the public in the election system," he says he told Trump. The teams he recommended would have a definite answer about election fraud by New Year's Eve, he said, and probably a "quick read" within two or three days. But he says he also told Trump, "if we don't find the kinds of things we think we're going to find," he would need to concede. He recalls Trump leaning over, "almost like he's talking CEO to CEO," and saying, "'Pat, you have no idea how easy it will be for me to concede if you don't find what you're talking about. ? My life's going to get a lot better, Pat. ? But how can I do that if I think this election's been rigged?' "He was 75," Byrne says. "He was tired. He didn't know who to believe. He was surrounded by a bunch of liars." Byrne also says he was "given to believe" that there had been personal threats against Trump, and cabinet members were talking about the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him. "There were a whole bunch of reasons he was afraid to act," he says. There were three strategies to bring challenges to the election results, Byrne says. Powell wanted to take all the election disputes into court, while Rudy Giuliani preferred a more limited approach. Then there was the "Green Bay sweep," named after a play the NFL team is famous for: persuade members of Congress to return the states' elector certifications to their legislatures for a week for reconsideration. Byrne says he had "cyber guys" digging up data to support all of the plans. By Jan. 4, court decisions left only the Green Bay Sweep as an option. A meeting was held that day at Trump's D.C. hotel to lay out the argument and get members of Congress on board, Byrne says. There were no commitments at the meeting but by that evening, he says, at least 12 had agreed and "we heard that (Vice President Mike) Pence was going for it." Under a federal statute, Pence would declare a week's delay. The votes would then be opened on Jan. 13 instead of Jan. 6 and "however they assign the electoral votes is how they assign the electoral votes," Byrne says. He says the idea "didn't strike him as offensive to the Constitution." "People might say there's a hickey on the constitutional process, but there'a a hickey on the constitutional process and there's paving over an election that now 60% of Americans think was illegal," he says. The event on Jan. 6 was supposed to consist of Flynn giving a speech on the historical significance of the election and the delay; two scientists laying out data supporting suspicions in the results; and Byrne talking about the need to keep any demonstrations peaceful. He says he was visited earlier in the week by an unidentified "militia guy" who told him thousands of people with "long guns" were coming on Jan. 6 and "we'll do whatever you say." "We're ready to take this place over," he says the man told him. "To which I said, 'please don't do that. On the morning of Jan. 6, he thought there was better than a 50% chance of delaying the count. But that morning he and Flynn learned they had been "disinvited" as speakers. People from the White House he associates with Pence had taken over the event, he says, and it became a pep rally for Trump, "which was exactly the wrong thing to do." Then the Capitol was invaded, which was the worst thing that could happen for Trump, as it cost him the support of almost everyone planning to back the delay. That's why he's convinced Trump had nothing to do with it. "But I'm not saying there was no orchestration," he says, laying the blame on 600 or so "MAGA people" who let themselves be tricked into violence by 50-100 former federal agent or antifa instigators acting for the "deep state." There is no evidence of such an action. So far, much of what Byrne states in the video blog has led to testimony that discusses loud, nearly violent meetings in the White House. On Friday, he is set to testsify under oath about the events before and of Jan. 6, 2021. Byrne says he didn't make the video as a Trump voter, because he didn't vote for him. He says he's speaking as an "I don't want to see an election stolen voter." |
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