Opinion: Most Americans don’t know about these secret presidential powers

May 4, 2022 | William S. Cohen and Gary Hart | CNN

The January 6 House Select Committee is steadily peeling back the layers of deceit and deception practiced by those who planned or participated in the effort to overturn the 2020 US presidential election.

During its investigation, the committee has discovered a draft of a presidential executive order directing former President Donald Trump’s defense secretary to “seize, collect, retain and analyze all (voting) machines, equipment, electronically stored information, and material records.” More recently, the committee revealed it had obtained a text sent by a member of Congress to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows urging Trump to consider declaring martial law in order to overturn the 2020 election.

Although the executive order was never issued and the former President never invoked martial law, the mere conversation around both serves as a compelling reason to examine the scope of the powers held by an American president. …