The plot Trump tried to execute
Ever since the Jan. 6 riot or insurrection or whatever you want to call it in Washington, Republicans who pledge fealty to Donald Trump have engaged in a concerted campaign to insist that the mob that overran the Capitol was just a bunch of patriots who got carried away, not a would-be militia trying to overturn an election.
This ridiculous assertion about the thousands who stormed Congress in the midst of the counting of electoral votes chanting “Stop the steal!” looks especially obscene in light of new evidence confirming the depths to which Mr. Trump went to try to cling to power when it was clear he had lost the will of the voters, as fairly expressed at the ballot box.
Notes taken by then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, just shared with House investigators, document Mr. Trump on Dec. 27 telling acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to “Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen,” the most explicit evidence yet that he tried to turn the Department of Justice into a tool to pry the presidency from its rightful winner.
Mr. Rosen didn’t bite — but the very next day, DOJ civil division boss Jeffrey Clark circulated a draft letter suggesting there were irregularities in the election. He was rebuffed by others in the department. So fearful was Justice Department brass that the few good guys at the top would buckle, they prepared letters of resignation.
We already knew that Mr. Trump pressured Georgia election officials to find the precise number of votes he needed to win the state. We knew that he spouted lie after lie about fraud that didn’t occur, alleging a nefarious conspiracy orchestrated by big-city Democrats (when the decisive margin for Joe Biden came from elsewhere). We knew he stirred up the Jan. 6 crowd to do their patriotic duty and send a message to Congress.
Anti-democratic to the end, he lives in ignominy as what he calls those he loathes the most: an enemy of the people.