Jon Karl, the journalist behind the new book Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party, has produced more gems than Elon Musk’s dad did in South Africa using slave labor.

The latest is a note, introduced into the January 6th investigation. It was ripped up to hide what it said, but found by investigators and reconstructed like you might see in an episode of CSI.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who was part of the Mueller investigation, says the note proves that Trump intended to utilize the US military to influence the election as he wound down his term in office.

The secretary and chief of staff of the Army had issued a joint statement in December of 2020 that made it plain that the US military could not determine the outcome of an election. The note, written by Trump aide Jonny McEntee, referenced Trump’s reaction to that statement, saying “Chris Miller spoke to both of them and anticipates no more statements coming out. (If another happens, he will fire them).”

Chris Miller, of course, was the acting Defense Secretary at the time after Trump fired Mark Esper via tweet for not supporting his plans to institute martial law and stay in power.

Boiled down, the note said Miller — a Trump ally and supporter of the “stolen election” theory — would fire both the secretary and the chief of staff of the Army if they issued any more statements like the one they released that December after the election.

But Weissmann, who also obtained the note, told MSNBC that:

“As much of you think of it as a military organization with a hierarchy, they are also trained that they do not violate the Constitution. And when there’s an invalid order, they know that they cannot follow it because the Constitution comes first. I remember when he first started a friend … said this was malevolence matched by incompetence so they weren’t really effective.”

But now, Weismann implied, Trump knows “the levers of power” and could use them far more effectively.

For Jack Smith, this note is nothing short of a smoking gun pointing at Trump’s plan to stage a coup and keep the White House even after losing to Joe Biden.