Trump pressed DOJ to overturn election
Emails cite fraud, conspiracy theories
Former President Donald Trump repeatedly pressured the Justice Department to overturn Joe Biden’s victory, at one point urging prosecutors to file a Supreme Court lawsuit to nullify the election, according to new emails released Tuesday by the House Oversight Committee.
The emails from Mr. Trump and his aides during the last weeks of his presidency revealed bogus claims of fraud and conspiracy theories to win then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen’s support, prompting outrage from Mr. Rosen’s deputy.
“Pure insanity,” wrote then-Deputy AG Richard Donoghue, after receiving a YouTube link from Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows about a theory involving Italian spies.
Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., called the
232-page report a smoking gun that proves Mr. Trump wanted to block certification of Mr. Biden’s win — a campaign that eventually led to the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.
“Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost,” said Ms. Maloney.
The emails cited debunked
claims of voter fraud in various swing states and outlandish claims that Italy used military satellites to switch votes to Mr. Biden.
Ms. Maloney said the new documents prove the necessity of forcing officials like Mr. Meadows, Mr. Rosen and former Attorney General Bill Barr to testify under oath about Mr. Trump’s and their own actions.
“Those who aided or witnessed President Trump’s unlawful actions must answer the committee’s questions about this attempted subversion of democracy,” the New York Democrat said.
The emails date back to Dec. 14, right as Mr. Barr resigned after declaring there was no evidence of widespread fraud or any other substantial issues with the presidential election.
Mr. Trump and his acolytes clearly hoped to take advantage of Mr. Rosen’s tenuous position to obtain ammunition for their campaign to block Congress from certifying the election.
Mr. Meadows demanded that Mr. Rosen order prosecutors to look into possible issues with signature matching on absentee ballots in the county that includes Atlanta after Mr. Biden narrowly won Georgia.
“Engage on this issue immediately to determine if there is any truth to this allegation,” Mr. Meadows wrote.
Mr. Rosen resisted the efforts. He wrote to Mr. Donoghue deriding the request, according to the documents.
“Can you believe this?” Mr. Rosen asked. “I am not going to respond to the message.”
Mr. Rosen also said he “flatly refused” Mr. Meadows’ demand that he meet with Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, to discuss the Italian spy claims.
“[I] said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his ‘witnesses,’ ” Mr. Rosen wrote.
GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, a ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, argued Tuesday that it’s the Justice Department that should be probed for ignoring Mr. Trump and Mr. Meadows’ demands.
“When the president, when the chief of staff to the president of the United States asked someone in the executive branch to do something, and they basically give him the finger, I think that’s the problem we should be looking into. But that’s not what the Democrats are going to look into,” said Mr. Jordan, R-Ohio.