A report in the Guardian about Trump desperately making phone calls to his lieutenants in the “war room” in the Willard Hotel on January 6th walks right up to the line of saying essentially “Trump knew Pence was not going to play along with stopping the electoral vote count, so in order to physically prevent the session from happening he either ordered the attack on Congress or he let it happen”. The headline “Trump called aides hours before Capitol riot to discuss how to stop Biden victory” clearly implies as such and – while not surprising in the least – is a fairly explosive assertion of his intent to simply prevent Congress from completing their constitutionally required mandate and buy more time to figure out alternative means to remain in power.

“It was not clear whether Trump discussed on the call about the prospect of stopping Biden’s certification by any means if Pence refused to insert himself into the process, but the former president is said to have enjoyed watching the insurrection unfold from the dining room. But the fact that Trump considered ways to stop the joint session may help to explain why he was so reluctant to call off the rioters and why Republican senator Ben Sasse told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt that he heard Trump seemed ‘delighted’ about the attack” writes the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell, summarizing the implications of his report – the leak from which it came may have been timed to underscore to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals the importance of the Capitol riot select committee’s case for obtaining Trump’s internal communications from that day.