The worst-case scenario for the Electoral College vote
The worst-case scenario for the Electoral College vote

Dear President-Elect Trump,

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

The best scenario is the Electoral College votes the 270 electors or more for you, and you take the oath of office on Inauguration Day.  Great, wonderful.

And, what’s the worst? The worst is that under Obama’s artificial CIA claim that the Russians hacked us to win the election, Obama invokes martial law under NSPD-51.  NSPD-51 is the worst.   Google it.  Or, google, https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html.  

What’s NSPD-51? It stands for “National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, NATIONAL SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/NSPD 51, HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-20.”  NSPD-51 is an executive order first signed by George Bush in the wake of the 9/11 attacks which “gave” the President of the United the authority to declare martial law. I put “gave” in quotes because it is only a Presidential Executive Order.  It’s not a “law” or a “constitutional” provision, and it may no longer be valid.  However, Obama re-upped NSPD-51, and apparently re-signed an expansive and secret version that was never really published in full.

NSPD-51, in essence, says the President can unilaterally declare martial law if he deems a “catastrophic emergency” has taken place.  And "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;”

Let’s boil this sentence down to its legal bare-bones: A "Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in . . . disruption severely affecting the U.S. population or government functions. 

What was the real reason for the "leak" to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal of  the “secret” CIA report that "concluded" that Russia, America’s greatest enemy, hacked into the DNC and fed the e-mails into the American media for 2 months before the election so as to win the election for Donald Trump. Just to capture a 24-hour news cycle?  Maybe.

What if the CIA “Russian Hacking Wins for Trump” finding was released so as to lay a false “fake news” ‘factual’ predicate basis for Obama to invoke NSPD-51.  If true, would such a cyber-war event constitute an “incident, regardless of location, that results in . . . disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, . . . or government functions?”  The alleged Russian sneak cyber-attack caused greater “harm” to the United States than the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, they could claim.  Forget the fact that the FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency don’t agree with the CIA.  Who knows what level of intelligence finding a President needs to invoke NSPD-51.

In short, instead of tweeting up a storm, I would be lawyering-up a storm to file preliminary injunctions against President Obama and the CIA to prevent any actions with respect to either the Electoral College or under NSPD-51.

Obama may not intend to watch his 8 years of work erased so easily.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst. 

Best regards,

Mark Langfan