- A Trump-aligned DOJ official urged colleagues to help pressure Georgia lawmakers.
- Jeffrey Clark drafted a letter in the department that promoted false election conspiracy theories.
- The letter, never sent, underscores Trump’s attempted pressure campaign at all government levels..
A top Justice Department official and close Trump ally urged his colleagues to co-sign on a letter that would’ve called on lawmakers in Georgia to investigate potential voter fraud in the state before the results of the election were certified in Congress on Jan. 6.
Jeffrey Clark, then the head of DOJ’s civil division, asked then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue to support wording that asked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and the state legislature to “convene a special session” so legislators could further debate the 2020 election and the state’s electors, according to ABC News.
“The Department will update you as we are able on investigatory progress, but at this time we have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia,” the draft letter, dated Dec. 28, states.
“Time is of the essence,” it warns, noting the state legislature would have limited time to halt its electors from casting their support for President Joe Biden on Jan. 6.
Copies of the draft letter were obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and reported by ABC News.
The findings are the latest revelations to shed light on how directly former President Donald Trump and his allies leaned on officials at all levels of government to interfere with the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Last week, the House Oversight Committee released notes of Trump’s conversations with Rosen, showing how the former president pressured the Justice Department.
Clark pushed Trump’s false claims
After former Attorney General William Barr’s resignation in December over his denial of Trump’s claims of election fraud, the former president had tried to devise a plan to oust Rosen, as well, and replace him with Clark. While the effort was ultimately unsuccessful, Clark remained a staunch Trump ally within the DOJ promoting false conspiracy theories about the election.
No evidence has been found to support false election fraud claims made by Trump and others. Several court cases making such claims have been dismissed.
“While the Department of Justice believe[s] the Governor of Georgia should immediately call a special session to consider this important and urgent matter, if he declines to do so, we share with you our view that the Georgia General Assembly has implied authority under the Constitution of the United States to call itself into special session for [t]he limited purpose of considering issues pertaining to the appointment of Presidential Electors,” the letter reads.
Rosen and Donoghue rebuffed Trump, noting that the DOJ under Barr had already investigated potential widespread voter fraud and found no foul play, according to a June New York Times report.
Clark, however, continued to be a voice pushing for investigations into election fraud from inside the department, alarming top officials.
“Personally, I see no valid downsides to sending out the letter,” Clark wrote in emails to his colleagues.
Rosen and Donoghue weren’t receptive to the calls.
“There is no chance that I would sign this letter or anything remotely like this,” Donoghue replied to Clark several days after the initial message. “While it maybe true that the Department ‘is investigating various irregularities in the 2020 election for President’ (something we typically would not state publicly) the investigations that I am aware of relate to suspicions of misconduct that are of such a small scale that they simply would not impact the outcome of the Presidential Election.”
Donoghue continued that “from where I stand, this is not even within the realm of possibility.”
Rosen later concurred, writing, “I confirmed again today that I am not prepared to sign such a letter.”
Dick Durbin wants Clark’s testimony
Rosen spoke Saturday in front of a closed session of Senate Judiciary Committee investigators for seven hours Saturday. That session followed the revelations of the House committee.
“It really is important that we ask these questions because what was going on in the Department of Justice was frightening from a constitutional point of view,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “To think that Bill Barr left, resigned after he announced he didn’t see irregularities in the election, and then his replacement was under extraordinary pressure — the President of the United States, even to the point where they were talking about replacing him, that pressure was on.”
“If it happened, it’s wrong,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also told CNN on Sunday, referring to Trump’s instructions to overturn the election.
Durbin further promised investigations into the conduct of Trump DOJ officials and the former president and his inner circle as well. saying, “ultimately, there will be a report where there are more people that we will try to bring in. I would like to bring in Jeffrey Clark, for example.”
Follow Matthew Brown online @mrbrownsir.
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/08/trump-doj-official-urged-acting-ag-pressure-georgia-election/5531371001/
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