Washington, D.C.
Turning down Trump: Former President Trump’s staff pressured the Justice Department to pursue unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election for weeks before Trump left office, according to emails released by the
House Oversight Committee this week. The White House began pushing Jeffrey Rosen, the No. 2 at the DOJ, to chase baseless claims beginning at least 10 days before Rosen became acting attorney general: An hour before Trump announced William Barr’s resignation as AG, Trump sent Rosen an email via his assistant describing alleged tampering with Michigan voting machines—claims a federal judge had already thrown out. Later, Rosen received a series of requests for investigations from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, including one that urged Rosen to probe whether Italians were using military satellites to tamper with U.S. voting machines. Rosen refused the request and forwarded the message to his deputy, Richard Donoghue, who responded,
“Pure insanity.”