Trump Tried To Use Justice Department To Overturn Election

We know that Trump tried to use the courts to overturn election results, and failed in more than 60 lawsuits. We know he tried to pressure legislatures and state officials into overturning the election results in their states, and failed. And we know that Trump incited his supporters and then sent them to attack Congress in an effort to pressure Congress into overturning the election results.

Those were attempts to subvert our democratic system, and some provide the basis for the impending impeachment trial.

Now we learn there was another devious and criminal attempt to overturn the election results -- this one involving the Justice Department. Trump plotted with Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark to fire acting Attorney General Rosen, and replace him with Clark. Clark would then announce the Justice Department had evidence of voter fraud and overturn some state election results (even though there was no such evidence).

This plot was only abandoned after all Justice Department officials threatened mass resignations.

Here is part of how The New York Times reported this plot:

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 J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its 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 Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.

The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed?

The answer was unanimous. They would resign.

Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. Trump to keep Mr. 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. Mr. Trump’s decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. 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 long-running effort to batter the Justice Department into advancing his personal agenda. He also pressed Mr. Rosen to appoint special counsels, including one who would look into Dominion Voting Systems, a maker of election equipment that Mr. Trump’s allies had falsely said was working with Venezuela to flip votes from Mr. Trump to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

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