Report details Trump all-out bid to undo election results

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WASHINGTON (AP) Donald Trumps extraordinary effort to overthrow his 2020 election defeat has brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos, and prompted top officials there and the White House to threaten to resign, the report found of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The report released Thursday by the Democrat-run committee offers new insight into how the Republican incumbent tried to withdraw the vote and give his will to the department, asking leaders to declare the election corrupt and humiliated its top official for not doing anything to overturn the results Trump’s actions led to a near-term uprising at the department’s headquarters that backed down only after senior officials warned about a massive resignation on duty, with a White House lawyer describing efforts to undo the election as a suicide-suicide deal.

In an attempt to enlist the DOJ for personal, political purposes in an effort to maintain his grip on the White House, Trump has grossly abused the power of the presidency and allegedly violated a federal law prohibiting anyone from ordering the federal employees engaged in political activity, the report said.

While the broad outline of what happened after the Nov. 3 election has long been known, the Senate investigation based on a review of documents and interviews with former officials revealed the extent of Trump’s entire campaign to stay in White House. It shows how Trump benefited from the support of an anonymous Justice Department lawyer who won the former president’s efforts to challenge the vote but how, ultimately, other senior officials stood together to confront Trump. . The outcome indicates how much the fragile U.S. election system depends on the integrity of government officials.

Trumps ’effort, which is now the subject of a Justice Department inspector general investigation, was unsuccessful and Biden took office on Jan. 20. However, false election claims have exploded in the country, including the millions of Americans who mistakenly believe the contest was stolen. .

Anger about the election forced a mass of Trump supporters to violently rush to the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an effort to disrupt congressional certification of Bidens ’victory. The rioters beat and bled the excessive police force, sent lawmakers running for their lives and caused $ 1 million in damage. More than 630 people have been criminally charged in the riot, the largest prosecution in the history of the Department of Justice.

Republicans, who have remained more loyal to Trump since the uprising, have issued their own report highlighting concerns raised by Democrats and painted Trump as a hero who ignored suggestions from the attorney Jeffrey Clark, and refused to remove top officials of the Department of Justice. Their denial makes a fascinating claim that Trump is worried about the election system being heavily written and not about himself, even as he fights the public to stay in office and forced Vice President Mike Pence to help him.

The Democrats report puts a report on Trump’s relentless urging of the Department of Justice during a turbulent motion in December and early January to investigate suspected voter fraud and support his efforts to eliminate results. Trump laid the groundwork for that effort even before the election when he attacked the voting process.

But he exaggerated it significantly after Election Day and specifically after the resignation of Attorney General William Barr, who weeks before he left the Justice Department told The Associated Press that the department had not found fraud that could affect the election result.

At a White House meeting narrated for Senate investigators, Jeffrey Rosen, who served as Barrs deputy and temporarily headed the department after Barr left, described how Trump, in an effort to initiate an inquiry into the department , showed videos of someone delivering a suitcase of ballots.

Rosen said he remembered what Trump said, I would really suggest to you, sir, with respect, that it would be a better thing for everyone to use it last month to focus on some of the things that have been done in the last four that year, a tax reform and vaccine, Operation Warp Speed, and not going to this election is bad.

The campaign to pressure Trump and his allies included a draft brief that the White House said the Justice Department wanted to file with the Supreme Court to overturn the election results. The department refused to file the document, which the Senate report describes as raising a litany of untrue and undeleted claims.

The conflict ended in a quarrelsome, long-time White House meeting on Jan. 3 in which Trump openly considered replacing Rosen as acting attorney general with Clark, an assistant attorney general. The Democrats report said Trump told Rosen: One thing we know is that you, Rosen, arent going to do anything to overthrow the election.

Clark positioned himself as more sympathetic to the pursuit of Trump’s fraud allegations even as the results were verified by states and Republican election officials. The courts rejected a dozen legal election challenges and Barr, Trump’s own lawyer, said Biden won fairly.

Clark refused to be interviewed voluntarily by the committee, and his attorney did not immediately return messages asking for comment. The committee said it submitted a complaint to the District of Columbia Bar to assess whether discipline is appropriate.

Several officials at the Jan. 3 meeting told Trump they would resign if he handed Clark over to the Department of Justice. According to eyewitnesses interviewed by staff of most Senate committees, White House adviser Pat Cipollone referred to a draft letter from Clark urging Georgia officials to call a special session of the legislature on election results as a pact murder-suicide. Cipollone threatened to stop.

Richard Donoghue, the Rosens deputy at the time, replied that there was no chance that he would sign that letter or anything remotely like it. Donoghue told the committee that he told Trump that all assistant attorney general, and possibly U.S. attorneys and other senior department officials, would resign if the president replaced Rosen with Clark.

Georgia has emerged as a particular area of ​​focus for Trump, who has asked to remove Atlanta’s top prosecutor, BJay Pak, who claims he was never Trump, the report said. Pak originally planned to remain in the position until Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, but resigned earlier this week than that due to pressure from Trump.

Aside from Clark, Trump found another ally in Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., Disputed the validity of Bidens’ victory in Pennsylvania and called Donoghue last Decemver to say the department was not doing its job regarding the election. Perry encouraged Donoghue to seek Clarks’ help because he was the kind of guy who could actually go there and do something about it, the report said.

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Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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