Mutiny at Justice Dept. halted Trump scheme to overturn Ga.

WA SHINGTON» The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald Trump to oust Jeffrey Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia lawmakers to overturn the state’s presidential election results.

The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Trump was about to decide whether to fire Rosen and replace him with Clark.

The department officials, convened on a conference call then asked one another:

What will you do if Rosen is dismissed?

The answer was unanimous. They would resign.

Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Trump to keep Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Trump’s decision came only after Rosen and Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis.

The previously unknown chapter was the culmination of the president’s longrunning effort to batter the Justice Department into advancing his personal agenda. He also pressed Rosen to appoint special counsels, including one who would look into Dominion Voting

Systems, a maker of election equipment that Trump’s allies falsely said was working with Venezuela to flip votes from Trump to Joe Biden.

This account of the department’s final days under Trump’s leadership is based on interviews with four former Trump administration officials who asked not to be named because of fear of retaliation.

Clark said this account contained inaccuracies but did not specify, adding that he could not discuss any conversations with Trump or Justice Department lawyers because of “the strictures of legal privilege.”

Clark categorically denied that he devised any plan to oust Rosen or to formulate recommendations for action based on factual inaccuracies gleaned from the internet.

“My practice is to rely on sworn testimony to assess disputed factual claims,” Clark said.