"The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed," Palpatine said, to the Senate. "But I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger."
"An attempt on your life by who, exactly?" the Senator from Corellia asked, his voice rising into the silence before the applause could really start.
"...by the Jedi," Palpatine replied. "Senator Iblis, the chair does not recognize you to speak!"
Garm Bel Iblis shrugged. "You just recognized me easily enough. And I repeat my question. An attempt on your life by who, exactly?"
"The Jedi!" Palpatine answered, for the second time. "They launched a plot to wipe me out!"
"All of them?" Iblis asked. "I don't believe that, Chancellor."
"Why not?" Palpatine asked. "You are taken in by the propaganda about the Jedi?"
"I mostly think they wouldn't all fit in the room," Iblis replied. "There's quite a lot of them, or, there were yesterday. Not so many now, I understand… but they wouldn't all have fit in the room."
He shrugged. "So – which Jedi? And do you have any proof?"
"Proof?" Palpatine demanded. "I need no proof! There was an attempt on my life!"
"And?" Iblis replied. "We still have laws and courts. If it's as obvious as you say then surely it would have been very easy to get them all convicted – though I'll point out that several thousand of the Jedi in the temple were children, and that temple was burned to the ground so thoroughly that its smoke still rises into the sky outside. I don't think they were all involved, Chancellor."
"Can we stop him?" Palpatine asked Mas Amedda, more quietly.
"I'll cut him off from the sound systems," Mas replied, tapping a button. "There you go."
"Well, he's stopped talking," Palpatine muttered, frowning at Iblis, then raised his voice again. "I understand the concerns of the Senator for Corellia! But taking a user of the Force prisoner is extremely difficult, and no risks could be taken."
"One of my concerns is to ask whether there was an assassination attempt in the first place!" Iblis said, demonstrating that he had excellent slicers on his payroll by turning out to still have access to the audio systems. "Fellow Senators, the Chancellor has offered no proof, nor has he consulted with you, nor has he filed a case with the courts. Instead, on his own authority, he has burned down the organization that protected this Republic for a thousand generations. The organization that above all else was responsible for both the founding of this Republic, and its defence against the Sith Empire, and its victory in the war we have faced."
"Shut him up," Palpatine insisted.
"I don't have slicer overwatch," Mas Amedda replied. "You're the one who told me we wouldn't have any more problems."
Palpatine seriously considered choking his longtime ally of convenience, then reluctantly admitted he had to refrain.
"At least give me something useful," he said, instead.
Iblis was still speaking, talking about the way that it would have been flat impossible for a Jedi Order that was actually expecting trouble to be destroyed overnight in the way that it had clearly happened, then stopped.
"Chancellor," he said. "All that I have said is because I am trying to work out what happened. You have shown no proof of your accusations. Do you have that proof?"
"I need no proof!" Palpatine replied. "Beyond the physical evidence of the attempt on my life!"
"Well, I have good news," Iblis replied, and the holosystems in the chamber fuzzed into life before firming up.
"Shut the whole system down!" Palpatine snapped at Mas, not bothering to stay quiet this time, as a security feed from his office the previous evening appeared.
Mas fumbled the data pad he was using, scrolling through menus. "Where's the button-"
"You don't know?" Palpatine demanded.
"I've never had to do that function before!" Mas replied, annoyed. "You think I have to do it often?"
The Senate was starting to break into an uproar, and Iblis spoke again. "We've just seen it – the Jedi Masters accused the Chancellor of being a Sith Lord and offered to let him surrender, and he drew a lightsaber and denied this august body's importance! The Republic is betrayed! I call a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Palpatine-"
Mas finally found the right button, shutting down the power in the entire Senate Rotunda, and everything went dark.
This left Palpatine on top of a spire at least fifty metres high, in the middle of a room lined with shouting senators. All of whom had at least one personal bodyguard with them.
Senator Amidala was the first to get out a blaster and fire a stun bolt, mindful of the backstop, but she wasn't the last.
AN:
I was reading the original Thrawn books and got reminded that Garm Bel Iblis was a senator.