![]() ![]() Just after midnight the following day, Trump tweeted: “This is BIG NEWS. Trump’s assistant sent an email to Rosen with the subject line “From POTUS” and attached materials that listed “talking points” about a “cover-up of voting crimes” in Michigan, a state that Trump lost by more than 154,000 votes.Ībout an hour after the email was sent, Trump announced that Attorney General William Barr would be stepping down from his position and Rosen would be taking over as acting attorney general. "On a follow up call, I learned that Johnson is working with Rudy Giuliani, who regarded my comments as 'an insult.' Asked if I would reconsider, I flatly refused and said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his 'witnesses,' and re-affirmed yet again that I will not talk to Giuliani about any of this." "After this message, I was asked to have FBI meet with Brad Johnson, and I responded that Johnson could call or walk into FBI's Washington Field Office with any evidence he purports to have," Rosen continued. In response to Donoghue, Rosen wrote: "Yes." Meadows' email had linked to a Youtube video featuring Brad Johnson - a retired CIA official whose LinkedIn says he now offers commentary on the far-right, pro-Trump cable channel One America News Network - also making the baseless claims of Italian malfeasance. "Pure insanity," Richard Donoghue, who was the acting deputy attorney general, wrote to Rosen in response to Meadows' latest email promoting the theory. On that day, Meadows emailed Justice Department leaders about the Italy conspiracy and complaints in Georgia and New Mexico, a state Trump lost by more than 10 points. 1, just five days before the Capitol riot and Congress' affirmation of the certified electors. The pressure campaign reached its crescendo on Jan. The messages are also riddled with conspiracy theories, and the Oversight Committee's staff members cited at least five instances when then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows inquired about rumors that were circulating on the internet at the time but for which there was no supporting evidence.įor example, Meadows emailed Rosen a translated document from a person in Italy who claimed without evidence that he had “direct knowledge” of a plot that involved Italians changing the election results and then loading them into “military satellites.” Trump's vocal public efforts to overturn the election were highly unusual, but had the DOJ intervened on his behalf it would have been viewed as an extraordinary use of the powers of the presidency to overturn the will of voters. “Those unconstitutional changes allowed election irregularities in various forms,” said the complaint, which called on the high court to authorize a special election in those states to appoint new presidential electors. All six were swing states that Trump lost. The 54-page brief called on the Supreme Court to declare that Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada had administered the 2020 presidential election in violation of the Electors Clause and the 14th Amendment, claiming that the states changed election rules without legislative action. Kurt Olsen, a private attorney for Trump, also contacted department officials requesting the federal agency file the brief. Among the efforts was pressure on the Department of Justice to intervene in lawsuits being pursued by Trump's campaign and supporters to get the Supreme Court to overturn the results.Īt the end of December, Trump’s White House assistant emailed then-Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and other top Justice Department officials with a draft legal brief that the president wanted them to file with the Supreme Court. ![]()
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