DON VS. THE DOJ
Wanted to replace AG over elex-fraud lie
Then-President Donald Trump repeatedly tried to browbeat top Department of Justice officials into investigating his claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election, the select committee probing last year’s Capitol riot heard Thursday.
Trump also enlisted a little-known Republican congressman, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, to hound the DOJ to look into the claims and push a lower-level official into the position of acting Attorney General, the committee heard.
Three former DOJ officials testified about Trump’s relentless campaign to stay in power and how he hosted a dramatic Oval Office showdown just days before the Capitol riots to weigh replacing the department’s head with an official who was more sympathetic to the 45th president.
The officials said they refused each of Trump’s demands, including Supreme Court lawsuits, because they had found zero evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Richard Donoghue, who was the acting deputy attorney general in the waning days of the Trump administration, said the president had an “arsenal of allegations” about a socalled fraudulent election, but he “went through them piece by piece to say, no, they were not true.”
Then-Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen testified that Trump either called or met with him “every day” between Dec. 23, 2020, and Jan. 3, 2021, to discuss his voter fraud claims. At one point, Trump threatened to fire both Rosen and Donoghue because they refused to pursue his claims — and install then-Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark because he wanted to champion Trump’s bogus theory.
Trump had Perry try and persuade then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to promote Clark and give him more responsibility in handling the election fraud claims, according to Donoghue.
“He said something to the effect of, I think, ‘Jeff Clark is great and I think he’s the kind of guy could get in there and do something about this stuff,’ ” Donoghue testified.
Rosen testified that Trump had offered Clark the job of acting attorney general on Jan. 2 and internal call logs showed the White House was already referring to him as the DOJ’s top official by the following day.
During a high-stakes Oval Office meeting, Trump asked the top DOJ officials, “What do I have to lose?” by giving Clark the job. The officials testified they warned Trump there would be mass resignations within the department if Trump followed through with his plan. Only then did he relent and keep Rosen in place.
Clark, who was subpoenaed by the committee, repeatedly invoked his constitutional right against selfincrimination during his taped deposition.
The hearing also focused on GOP members of Congress who aligned themselves with Trump’s claims and later requested pardons after the Capitol riots. Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Perry were among those to seek pardons, former White House aide Cassidy Richard said.