by James Rosone
Jerome placed a hand on Marshall’s arm. “Hang on, sir. I’m sure there’s a way around this. Let’s make a few calls and find out what’s going on.”
The next twenty minutes went by in a flurry of activity and phone calls. They started calling in all sorts of markers and chits with people across the government and the judicial branch to find out whatever they could about what was going on.
Chapter 21
Election Interference
November 6, 2020
Vinton, Louisiana
Interstate 10
Dusty Hampton never grew tired of driving this particular route along I-10. He loved seeing the variation in trees and vegetation along this stretch of road. He’d pick up a load in San Diego, and then haul it across the country to Florida. He never asked what was in the trailer, though he knew better than to ask. When you hauled for USA Trucking, you accepted that you hauled some interesting items. Most of his hauls involved picking something up at a military base, government facility or some defense contractor building. On occasion, he’d haul something that required special markings on his trailer, but even then, he knew once he hooked up the trailer, the owner would place a special lock and seal on the trailer that could be undone only by the receiving party.
As he got closer to Vinton, Louisiana, he remembered the little diner he had stopped at a few weeks back and made a point of pulling off to grab himself another beer and one of those incredible Billy’s Longhorn ribeye steaks.
He slowed down and took the appropriate exit from the interstate. He turned left and drove under the overpass to the familiar truck stop, the Longhorn Truck and Car Plaza. He found a spot in the back of the parking lot reserved for rigs like his. Securing the truck, he made his way inside and found a seat.
He shook his head as he looked up at the TV. Same time, same station, he realized. Duck Dynasty reruns were playing once again.
He saw the same waitress from last time approach him. She brought a glass of water and a menu and placed them on the table.
“Can I get you anything else to drink while you look over the menu?” she asked with a warm smile.
“I’ll take a Miller Lite, and I know what I want. I’d like to get the ribeye with a baked potato and the seasoned rice,” he replied. He wanted to get his order cooking. He was hungry.
“How would you like your steak cooked?” she asked.
“Medium rare, please.”
“OK, hun. I’ll be back with your beer in a minute,” she said and walked off to grab him a cold one.
A man walked up to one of the waitresses and asked if they could change one of the TVs over to Fox News. Apparently, there was some big announcement being made at 5 p.m. A minute went by, and then the TV switched over to the news station.
Dusty saw one of the news anchors talking with a guest before the broadcast broke away to the White House briefing room. A judge walked up to a lectern, flanked by the Director of National Intelligence, the Director of the FBI and the DHS Secretary.
They’re bringing out the big guns for this announcement, thought Dusty.
The judge cleared his throat. “I’ll be brief with my remarks,” he began. “The others here will be able to provide more clarity on what has transpired. What I’m here to tell you is that the D.C. Circuit, with the exception of one justice, has determined that the 2020 election had been tampered with beyond the hope that it could still be considered a free and fair election.”
Several people in the restaurant gasped.
“The Director of National Intelligence, along with the Director of the FBI and the Director of Homeland Security, has presented enough evidence showing direct foreign intervention in our election that we feel the President’s initial executive order to postpone the election until it could be properly secured from foreign interference should have been upheld. As it stands, the results of Tuesday’s election were grossly influenced by several foreign nations, particularly China, Russia, and Germany.”
He paused for a second before he added, “It is in light of this evidence, and the fact that this election had been compromised before it was even held, that we have issued a ruling voiding Tuesday’s election results.”
Dusty heard a loud murmur from the reporters in the briefing room.
They must be practically jumping out of their seats to shout questions at him, he thought.
Justice Buckley held a hand up to forestall the inevitable barrage with which he was about to be assailed. He added, “Because the election was compromised and should not have been held, the D.C. Circuit is reinstating the President’s original executive order, moving the election from this past Tuesday, November fourth, 2020, to Monday, January fourth of 2021. The FBI, along with Homeland Security, have determined that this should give the government enough time to ensure the integrity of the election. With that, I’ll hand it over to the FBI and others to provide their brief of what transpired during this past Tuesday and why this course of action had to be taken.”
Dusty sat silently in the diner, a bit dumbfounded by what he had just heard. He looked around and saw a lot of others feeling the same way. Some were obviously angered by the announcement, while others were glad to see something being done about what they perceived as an illegitimate victory by the Tate campaign.
A moment later, the waitress brought him his beer. His food came another fifteen minutes after that. Meanwhile, the news conference droned on, with each person giving an account of what transpired during the last six weeks of the campaign leading up to and including the various terrorist attacks. It was mind-numbing to think that this had all been orchestrated by a foreign power, a direct interference in the US election. Not only were votes stolen, a multitude of terrorist attacks were carried out against the country, all in an attempt to distract from the voter scheme and sow fear and chaos in the electorate leading up to election day.
I sure hope someone’s going to pay for this. This isn’t right, Dusty thought as he sat through the rest of his dinner, watching and listening to what was unfolding in Washington.
*******
Cleveland, Ohio
Senator Tate’s Campaign HQ
Marshall Tate sat in his overstuffed leather chair, infuriated by what he’d just heard. The Chief Justice of the D.C. Circuit had just voided his presidential victory.
Damn Sachs! He found a way to subvert the will of the people, he thought angrily.
He turned to look at his Chief of Staff and senior political advisors, who were staring at the TV, mouths agape. “Can we get another court to dissent with their ruling? There has to be a way for us to get this overturned,” Marshall asserted.
Jerome sat back in the chair, slumping his shoulders. A moment later, he suddenly sat straight up. “What if we get the governors to side with us and not recognize the authority of the D.C. Circuit?” he posited. “We could also get the Speaker of the House to join us. Certainly, she’d agree with us that this election was won fair and square.”
Janey Roberts nodded. “We need to get the Speaker of the House to remind the court that only Congress has the authority to set and change the dates of the election. The President and the courts have no constitutional say in the matter, which is why the President’s EO was shot down in the first place. If she asserts her authority in this matter and then we get several of the governors to side with her, I think we can make the case publicly that you are the President-Elect and that come January 20th, you will be President, not Sachs.”
Marshall agreed. He reached for his smartphone and placed a call to the Speaker of the House. It took him a few minutes to finally get through. When he did reach her, he didn’t have a chance to plead his case.
“Marshall, I’m sorry, but I can’t talk right now. I’m on my way to the White House, along with the majority leader and minority leader of the Senate, to be briefed by the directors of the FBI, homeland security and national intelligence.” She paused. “When I finish the meeting, I’ll reach out to you and let you know how I t
hink things will shake out.”
Logically, it had made sense what she’d told him, but emotionally, it enraged him that she wouldn’t immediately announce her support for him and denounce the court ruling. They needed a solid front if they were going to challenge the court ruling.
*******
It was nearly midnight by the time the Speaker called him back.
“Marshall, I’ve seen the intelligence,” she began, “and it does appear that your win was certainly at least in part because of the interference of multiple foreign actors.”
“What?” he said, exasperated.
“Look, based on the information I just saw, I can’t back your claim to challenge the court ruling. I have to support the new election date.”
She disconnected the call and his stomach sank. Marshall fell back into the leather chair, dejected and deflated. Now what? he wondered.
“What did she say?” asked Janey, who was leaning forward, obviously waiting with bated breath.
Marshall looked up at her. “She said she wouldn’t support us,” he said, speaking softly. “She said the intelligence was pretty convincing that a foreign actor had intervened in the election.”
Janey shook her head in disgust. “That traitor. I’ll see about that,” she said angrily. She stood up and walked away in a huff. He could hear her making some calls, presumably to some friendly congressional leaders who might be able to convince the Speaker to change her mind.
Jerome entered the room just as Janey walked past him. He gave Marshall a quizzical look but didn’t say anything as he sat down next to him. “I think I have a workaround for us,” he announced.
Marshall turned his head, all ears at any way out of this conundrum.
“The governor of California, along with the state party chair, is going to file a brief to the Ninth Circuit in an attempt to get them to overrule the D.C. Circuit’s decision. The governor of California is also going to have his Secretary of State certify the results. I’m in the process of getting the other Democratic secretaries of state to do the same thing. I believe if we can get enough of the governors and secretaries of state to back you as the President-Elect, we can still make this happen.”
Marshall looked at Jerome with newfound respect. He knew his Chief of Staff was an accomplished lawyer, but it hadn’t even occurred to him to try and have the secretaries of state attempt to certify the election as an end around the courts.
“Jerome, if we get all of the Democratic secretaries of state to certify the election, will that be enough electoral votes for us to still win?” asked Marshall.
Jerome shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Florida, Texas, and Ohio all have Republican secretaries of state. They won’t go along with that. I think our best bet is that while we work this angle, we work to unseat Congresswoman Miller as Speaker of the House and find someone who will back our claim that the election was legit and doesn’t need to be redone. I don’t know, Senator—all of this is a gamble. We’re in uncharted waters here. We’ve never had a situation like this before.”
The rest of the evening was spent talking with the various governors, secretaries of state, the Senate minority leader and several congressional leaders. They finally got momentum behind the movement to issue a leadership challenge against Speaker Miller the following morning.
The one thing they all knew they didn’t have on their side was time—the longer the D.C. Circuit’s decision was left unchallenged, the harder it would be to overturn and still keep the people with them. As it was, there were unprecedented protests taking place across the country, denouncing the judges’ ruling in nearly every major US city.
Chapter 22
Power Grab
November 10, 2020
Sacramento, California
Governor Gary Lawson felt like the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders. The last three days had been horrific on the nation, and his state in particular. Since the Chief Justice of the D.C. Circuit had announced they’d invalidated the results of the election four days earlier, nearly every major city in California had been experiencing some sort of mass protest. It had been getting so bad he had nearly called in the National Guard.
I still might have to if things don’t calm down, he thought.
Just two days earlier, an en banc of the Ninth Circuit Court had heard the challenge to the D.C. Circuit and issued a ruling countering their proclamation that had voided the election. An en banc of the Second, Third, Sixth and Seventh circuits also sided with the Ninth in their ruling, overturning the D.C. court’s ruling. In the absence of a Supreme Court, the chief justices of the five circuit courts issued a statement that their collective conclusions overrode the decision issued by the D.C. Circuit, and thereby ordered the fifty secretaries of states to move forward with certifying Senator Marshall Tate as the 46th president of the United States.
That same day, Congresswoman Harriet Miller of his home state had been deposed as the Speaker of the House when she’d refused to side with Senator Tate. She was quickly replaced by the House Judiciary Chairman, Timothy Borq from New York, who immediately sided with the circuit judges and further stated that only Congress had the authority to change the date and time of presidential elections. As such, he declared that Congress did not recognize the President’s executive order to change the date of the election as lawful. He declared that the election that had just been held stood.
Following that whirlwind of activity, the Democratic governors had collectively agreed that they would support the Ninth Circuit’s decision and that of the new Speaker of the House, despite the outcries by Republicans, the D.C. Circuit justices and the President.
Governor Lawson sipped on his cup of coffee as he mulled over the tumultuous events of the last several days. Then he turned his attention back to preparing for his speech later that day. This could be one of the most important speeches of his political career. He was about to fire a shot across the bow to the current administration—a shot meant to get them to stop this self-created constitutional crisis they were brewing and work together in moving past the election and healing the country.
*******
As he listened to the loud chatter taking place in the pressroom just a few feet away, Governor Lawson suddenly felt hot, sweaty, and extremely nervous. He steeled his nerves, though, and nodded to his press secretary, who held the door open for him. He quickly entered the room and made his way to the lectern. The conversation quickly quieted down. Lawson nodded to a few friendly faces and flashed that million-dollar smile he was so well known for.
He cleared his throat. “The last week—no, the last six weeks—has been an incredibly trying time for our country. Our nation was attacked multiple times by terrorists and more than a thousand of our fellow citizens were killed. Many thousands more were injured. In that same timeframe, our nation took unilateral military actions in the peaceful tiny nations of Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia, and Bosnia, without coordinating with our European or NATO allies. I recently spoke with the Chinese consulate, who told me the Sachs administration abducted a Chinese businessman in Macedonia who is even now being held in a CIA black site without charges or access to a lawyer.
“President Sachs’s administration failed to protect us from these recent terrorist attacks. Rather than admit that failure, they have lashed out militarily to distract from their failings. When it became apparent in the polls that President Sachs was going to lose, he concocted this ludicrous claim that the Chinese had somehow stolen absentee and mail-in ballots in five states. Conveniently, those were the same five states he needed in order to win. He tried to use his powers as President to override the Constitution and the Congress and postpone the election. When that scheme failed, and he lost the election, he cried foul, citing, once again, Chinese interference. He then convinced several judges in the D.C. Circuit to side with him and overturn the election.”
He shook his head in frustration and anger. “Fortunately, an en banc ruling from the Second, Third, Sixth, S
eventh, and Ninth Circuits put this mockery of our laws and this fruitless power grab to an end and overruled the D.C. Circuit. I am proud to report that these justices, along with the newly elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tim Borq, have reaffirmed what we all know to be true. Senator Marshall Tate was duly elected to be the 46th president of the United States.”
Gary paused for a second as some applause broke out in the briefing room before he raised his hands briefly to calm them.
“As governor of California, I am calling on President Sachs to recognize the results of the election. I am calling on his human decency to accept the results, to honor his duly sworn oath to our Constitution and to allow President-Elect Tate to begin the process of transitioning the government from one party to the other, just as the President before him had done.”
Puffing his chest out a bit, Lawson added, “Whether President Sachs acknowledges the results of the election or not, come January 20th, 2021, the government of California will only recognize Marshall Tate as the legitimate president of the United States, and I call upon my fellow governors and citizens to do likewise. As governors and leaders of our states, it’s imperative that we set the example. Even if President Sachs will not adhere to the will of the people and peacefully leave office on the twentieth, we governors should move forward, acknowledging who we know to be the rightful 46th president, President-Elect Marshall Tate.”
*******
Washington, D.C.
Robert F. Kennedy Building
Department of Justice
Deputy Director Joseph Latrell of the FBI let out a deep, long sigh as he rubbed his temples. He reached for his half-empty mug of coffee. Lifting it to his lips, he immediately spat the contents out back into the cup.
Crap, coffee’s gone cold, he realized.
Snickering at what had just transpired, Attorney General Malcolm got up and walked to the edge of his door. He stuck his head out into the room adjacent to his. “Linda, can we get another fresh pot of coffee brought in?” he asked.