1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

WATCH: Former Justice Department official said Trump asked him to call 2020 election ‘corrupt’

Former acting deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue spoke on June 23 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings in their fifth public hearing.

Donaghue went through the steps the Department of Justice took to investigate claims of fraud that former President Donald Trump had repetitively raised. They said they found none of the claims to be factual.

“We went through a series of other [claims that the president raised]. The truck driver who claim to have moved an entire tractor trailer of ballots from New York to Pennsylvania. That was also incorrect. We did an investigation with the FBI, interviewed witnesses at the front end and the back end of that trailer’s transit from New York to Pennsylvania. We looked at loading manifests. We interviewed witnesses, including, of course, the driver, and we knew it wasn't true. Whether the driver believed or not was never clear to me, but it was just not true,” he said.

Donaghue began taking handwritten notes on a call with the president when he made an allegation that was new to him-- that more than 200,000 votes were certified in Pennsylvania that were not actually cast. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill. showed Donoghue’s notes at the hearing which quoted the president directly from the call the two had.

Kinzinger also played video testimony from former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani where Giuliani was asked about whether obscure DOJ official Jeffrey Clark was recommended to be put in a leadership position of the department after Clark had pushed proposals to further the president's effort to overturn the 2020 election.

“I do recall saying to people that somebody should be put in charge of the Justice Department who isn't frightened of what's going to be done to their reputation. Because the Justice Department was filled with people like that,” Giuliani said in a video testimony.

The hearing, the fifth of several planned by the Jan. 6 committee, focused on Trump’s pressure on the Department of Justice to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 committee outlines how GOP congressman Scott Perry pushed to restructure Justice Department



In the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2020, attack on the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry pushed to restructure the Department of Justice as former President Donald Trump and his allies led efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The U.S. House committee investigating the Capitol riot subpoenaed Perry, R-10th District, last year, citing his involvement in attempts to appoint Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.

Clark, a former Justice Department official, played a role in Trump’s false claims that voter fraud in swing states, specifically Georgia, contributed to his loss against now-President Joe Biden.

Though Perry has refused to testify before the panel, he was a core focus at Thursday’s hearing, which centered on efforts to pressure the Justice Department into supporting unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.

“Mark, just checking in as time continues to count down. 11 days to [Jan. 6] and 25 days to inauguration. We gotta get going,” Perry wrote to the former president’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Dec. 26, 2020.

He added: “Mark, you should call Jeff. I just got off the phone with him, and he explained to me why the principal deputy won’t work, especially with the FBI. They will view it as not having the authority to enforce what needs to be done.”

The committee — citing a White House visitor log — said Perry also brought Clark to meet with Trump on Dec. 22, one day Republicans, including Perry, met with Trump to discuss how to overturn the election.

Earlier this month, the committee said Perry later sought a presidential pardon in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, a claim Perry has denied.

In a January 2021 statement to WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Perry’s office said: “Throughout the past four years, I worked with Assistant Attorney General Clark on various legislative matters. When President Trump asked if I would make an introduction, I obliged.”

https://www.penncapital-star.com/blog/u-s-house-committee-outlines-how-u-s-rep-scott-perry-pushed-to-restructure-justice-department/

[Rick Plant]

'This is the smoking gun': Legal experts floored by new DOJ testimony against Trump

The fifth of the public hearings for the House Select Committee investigating the attempt to overthrow the election focused on the extent to which the former president attempted to use the Justice Department to change the 2020 election.

The hearing came on the heels of federal agents raiding the home of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who was alleged to have penned a letter that would have declared the election questionable.

Witnesses Jeffrey Rosen, Steven Engel and Richard Donoghue, who were all senior DOJ officials in the Trump administration, described to the committee how they met with Donald Trump in the White House to discuss what the former president said was election fraud.

Legal experts watched in awe of the revelations, claiming that former Acting Asst. Attorney General Jeff Clark is in big trouble for his role in the attempt to overthrow the election. On multiple occasions, the former Justice Department officials said Clark and Trump led an effort to subvert the 2020 election after the fact.

When asked about it under oath, Clark pleaded his Fifth Amendment rights.

"Jan. 6 committee outlines how GOP congressman Scott Perry pushed to restructure Justice Department," noted former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara.

"All lawyers involved in the plot to stop the transfer of power as part of the 1/6 conspiracy must be disbarred," added former Attorney General Eric Holder.

"This is the smoking gun," Holder added, after noting that Trump reportedly said "just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen." Holder said the statement "demonstrates both Trump’s substantive involvement and corrupt intent, requisite state of mind."

"We knew the outlines of the story, but the details are, again, stunning -- a brazen & almost certainly criminal attempt to undo the election. And we heard many more new names, eg Ken Klukowski and Victor Blackwell-- all of whom are co-conspirators and potential cooperators," remarked former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman.

"One of the most damning pieces of evidence in this investigation," said George Conway.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance simply stated: "Jeff Clark is in deep, deep trouble."

https://www.rawstory.com/january-6-justice-department-trump/

[Rick Plant]

Four takeaways from fifth day of Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot hearings



WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The fifth day of congressional hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Donald Trump's supporters heard how the then-president pressured the Justice Department to help him hold onto power after he lost the 2020 election.

The House of Representatives select committee investigating the attack received testimony from three former top department officials - then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, his deputy Richard Donoghue, and the then-head of the Office of Legal Counsel, Steven Engel.

Here are takeaways from Thursday's hearing:

TRUMP TRIED TO FIRE HIS ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL

Trump was frustrated by what he saw as Justice Department inaction investigating or validating his false claims of election fraud.

Between Dec. 23, 2020, and Jan. 3, 2021, Trump called or met Rosen almost every day as his efforts to hold onto power became more urgent. He wanted Rosen to pursue various avenues, including appointing a special counsel to investigate suspected election fraud.

"The common element of all of this was the president expressing his dissatisfaction with the Justice Department having not done enough to investigate election fraud," Rosen said.

When Rosen told Trump in a Dec. 27 meeting that the Justice Department could not just snap its fingers and change the outcome of the election, Trump quickly responded, "What I'm just asking you to do is just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen," Donoghue recalled.

A Trump-supporting Justice Department environmental lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, was a key player in Trump's efforts to use the department to aid his efforts to overturn his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Clark met with Trump in the Oval Office several times without the knowledge of White House counsel Pat Cipollone or Justice Department leadership, bypassing the normal chain of command and angering Rosen.

On Jan. 3, 2021, Clark told Rosen that Trump had offered him the position of attorney general and that he was going to accept. Rosen sought an urgent meeting with Trump at the White House, along with Donoghue and Engel, to talk him out of it.

Donoghue testified he told Trump that the entire department leadership would resign within hours if he fired Rosen. Trump turned to Engel and asked him if he would quit too, to which Engel replied that he would and that Clark "would be left leading a graveyard."

The last comment appeared to help sway Trump to back down from his plan, Donoghue said.

NEW YEAR'S EVE MEETING

Rosen and Donoghue attended a meeting with the president at the White House on New Year's Eve where Trump asked why the Justice Department had not seized voting machines that Trump supporters alleged had been manipulated to steal the election.

Rosen said his department had no legal authority to take that step, a response that did not sit well with Trump, Donoghue recalled.

Rosen told Trump that the Department of Homeland Security had investigated the issue and found nothing wrong with the voting machines.

At the meeting's end, Trump said, "People tell me I should just get rid of both of you."

Donoghue said he told Trump: "Mr. President, you should have the leadership that you want. But understand the United States Justice Department functions on facts, evidence and law. And those are not going to change."

THE 'MURDER-SUICIDE' LETTER

Clark drafted a letter to be sent to state legislatures in some Republican-controlled states, including Georgia, that aimed to sow doubts about Biden's election win.

The letter alleged that the Justice Department had concerns about election results in multiple states. By the time it was written the department had already determined that no widespread fraud had occurred.

"Donald Trump offered Mr. Clark the job of acting attorney general, replacing Mr. Rosen, with the understanding that Mr. Clark would send this letter and take other actions the president requested," said Representative Liz Cheney, the committee's Republican vice chair.
Donoghue told the committee he had to read the letter twice to make sure he understood correctly what Clark was proposing "because it was so extreme to me."

Donoghue said Clark was undeterred when he told him the Justice Department could not meddle in the election, responding, "I think a lot of people have meddled in this election"

The letter was never sent after Rosen and Donoghue refused to sign it. Cipollone, the White House counsel, said the letter was so toxic that it should never be seen again because if it was ever made public it would be a "murder-suicide."

ITALIAN SATELLITES

Trump pressed Justice Department officials to investigate a baseless internet-based conspiracy theory that an Italian defense contractor had uploaded software to a satellite that switched votes from Trump to Democrat Joe Biden.

Rosen said the conspiracy theory promoted by a former U.S. intelligence officer had been debunked.

Republican congressman Scott Perry texted Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows to ask him, "Why can't we just work with the Italian government?"

Then-Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller placed a call to the U.S. military attache at the embassy in Italy to seek an investigation, the committee said, citing it as an example of how Trump used the machinery of government to pursue his own personal ends.

Reuters

[Rick Plant]

WATCH: Former top DOJ official Donoghue on Jeffrey Clark's push on false election fraud claims

Richard Donoghue, former acting deputy attorney general, testified on June 23 as the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack presented its findings to the public.

Donoghue described to the committee how he and acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen tried to dissuade fellow DOJ official Jeffrey Clark from acting on claims of election fraud that were not supported by evidence. Clark had readied a letter meant for state legislatures in swing states that casted doubt on the 2020 election that had been won by President Joe Biden.

“For the department to insert into the political processes this way, I think, would have grave consequences for the country. It may very well spiral us into a constitutional crisis and I wanted to make sure he understood the gravity of the situation because he did not seem to appreciate it,” Donoghue recalled writing in a response to Clark.

Donoghue said Rosen was also “exasperated” by Clark’s efforts and the three had a “contentious” meeting.

Despite the warning, Donoghue said Clark continued to investigate claims of election fraud, including an intelligence briefing that suggested foreign interference in the election, and argued for sending the letter.

“We thought perhaps once it was explained to him that there was no basis for that part of his concern, that he would retreat. But instead, he doubled down and said, ‘OK, there is no foreign interference. I still think there are enough allegations out there that we should go ahead and send this letter,’ which shocked me even more than the initial one,” Donoghue said, “because you would think after a couple of days of looking at this – he, like we – would have come to the same conclusion, that it was unfounded.”

The hearing, the fifth of several planned by the Jan. 6 committee, focused on Trump’s pressure  on the Department of Justice to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. In the year since its creation, the committee has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, seeking critical information and documents from people witness to, or involved in, the violence that day.

[Rick Plant]

Former DOJ officials detail threatening to resign en masse in meeting with Trump



Witnesses in today's hearing revealed details of a dramatic Oval Office meeting on Jan. 3, 2021, in which top Justice Department officials banded together to prevent Jeffrey Clark, an environmental lawyer at the DOJ, from replacing acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.

Trump was keen to install Clark, an ally, in order to wield the powers of the DOJ to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The meeting took place a day after Clark had told Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue that Trump had asked him to consider replacing Rosen. Clark doubled down on claims that there had been fraud in the election and acknowledged he had had continued discussions with Trump, despite assuring the pair a week prior that he wouldn't engage in conversations with the president.

On Jan. 3, Clark told Rosen the "timeline had been moved up" and that Trump had offered him the top job and he was accepting it. Following that meeting, Rosen called then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to set up a meeting that night with the president. Included in the meeting were White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Steven Engel, assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.

Ahead of the meeting with Trump, Donoghue assembled a conference call with assistant attorneys general and asked what they would do if Clark was installed as head of the department. He testified that those in the meeting "said they would resign en masse."

Hours later, the tense meeting began.

Rosen said Trump "turned to me and said — 'Well, one thing we know is you, Rosen, you aren't going to do anything. You don't even agree with the claims of election fraud, and this other guy at least might do something,'" referring to Clark.

"I said, 'Well, Mr. President, you're right that I'm not going to allow the Justice Department to do anything to try to overturn the election. That's true," Rosen recalled. "'But the reason for that is because that's what's consistent with the facts and the law, and that's what's required under the Constitution.'"

Donoghue eventually joined the meeting and recalled Trump asking, "What do I have to lose?" in replacing Rosen with Clark.

"It was actually a good opening because I said, 'Mr. President, you have a great deal to lose,'" he testified. "I began to explain to him what he had to lose and what the country had to lose and what the department had to lose, and this was not in anyone's best interest. That conversation went on for some time. Everyone essentially chimed in with their own thoughts, all of which were consistent about how damaging this would be to the country."

The conversation turned to whether Clark was qualified to run the Justice Department.

"It was a heated conversation. I thought it was useful to point out to the president that Jeff Clark simply didn't have the skills, the ability and the experience to run the department," Donoghue testified.

"I said, 'Mr. President, you're talking about putting a man in that seat who has never tried a criminal case, who's never conducted a criminal investigation. He's telling you that he's going to take charge of the department — 115,000 employees, including the entire FBI — and turn the place on a dime and conduct nationwide criminal investigations that will produce results in a matter of days. It's impossible. It's absurd. It's not going to happen and it's going to fail.'"

Donoghue said Trump asked him what he would do if he replaced Rosen with Clark.

"I said, 'Mr. President, I would resign immediately. I'm not working one minute for this guy,'" he replied.

Engel echoed that: "'I've been with you through four attorneys general, including two acting attorneys general, but I couldn't be part of this," he said he told Trump.

Donoghue told Trump he would lose his "entire department" if he moved ahead.

"Within 24-48-72 hours, you could have hundreds and hundreds of resignations of the leadership of your entire Justice Department because of your actions. What's that going to say about you?" Donoghue remembers asking.

According to Donoghue, Cipollone was supportive of the DOJ and said Clark's plan to send a letter to states about election fraud was a "murder-suicide" pact.

Donoghue said Clark would be "left leading a graveyard," a statement he said had an impact on Trump, who ultimately decided not to fire Rosen.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/23/1107217243/former-doj-officials-detail-threatening-resign-en-masse-trump-meeting

[Rick Plant]

A damning Donald Trump quote you need to hear from today’s January 6 hearing

CNN — Donald Trump said and did a whole lot of things on and around January 6, 2021, as he sought to use the levers of government to push his false election fraud schemes and remain in power.

None was more damning than a quote that re-surfaced during the latest public hearing of the House select committee investigating January 6 on Thursday. It came from an extended phone call between Trump, acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue in December 2020.

The call, according to Donoghue, who took contemporaneous notes, featured the then-President repeatedly pressing the top Justice Department officials over a variety of false and conspiratorial claims about the election – all of which Donoghue shot down.

At some point during the call, Trump appears to grow exasperated. He implored Rosen and Donoghue to “just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” Donoghue testified Thursday.

Yeah. Think about that for a minute.

This is not the first time we have heard that line. CNN reported on the existence of Donoghue’s notes – and the Trump quote therein – in July 2021.

But in the context of the case being made by the January 6 committee, the quote is absolutely stunning and deeply revealing.

Consider, first, the brazenness exhibited by Trump here. He is asking the two highest-ranking officials of the Justice Department at the time, who have already repeatedly made clear to him on the same call that his claims of election fraud are spurious, to just say that there was fraud – and be done with it.

Second, the quote reveals – or, in truth, re-reveals – the utter misunderstanding (and contempt) that Trump had for the Department of Justice.

Time and time again, from the very early days of his time in office, Trump publicly expressed his frustrations that the DOJ would not simply do his bidding.

Trump repeatedly wondered – via his Twitter feed and his own public comments – why his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had recused himself from the investigation into Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election.

In an interview with Fox in August 2018, Trump asked, “What kind of man is this?” of Sessions, adding that he “never took control of the Justice Department.”

Trump fired Sessions on the day after the 2018 election.

Despite hand-picking Sessions’ successor, Bill Barr, Trump still complained the probe, led by special counsel John Durham, designed to look into the origins of the FBI’s Russia investigation was not moving quickly enough.

“If that’s the case I think it’s terrible,” Trump told conservative radio show Rush Limbaugh in October 2020 when asked about the possibility that the Durham probe might not be released until after the election. “It’s very disappointing. And I’ll tell [Barr] to his face. I think it’s a disgrace. It’s an embarrassment.”

(Worth noting: It wasn’t just the Department of Justice where Trump seemed to fundamentally misunderstand his power over them. He repeatedly referred to “my generals” and “my military".

The third thing the quote reveals is that Trump didn’t really care – in any meaningful way – whether or not there was actual election corruption. Remember that in the same phone call where Trump asks Rosen and Donoghue to “just say the election was corrupt,” he had told that the various claims he was making about election fraud were false.

All Trump cared about was using the imprimatur of the Justice Department as a shield by which he could then steer perception in favor of his election lies. In short: He knew what he was saying wasn’t born out by the facts. He didn’t care. He just wanted the DOJ to say “corrupt” so that he could meld and shape that for his own goal: staying in office no matter what.

It’s not clear yet whether the committee will recommend criminal charges at the end of all of this. Or whether the DOJ will charge Trump – or anyone else – in connection with their activities on January 6.

But what is clear is that Trump viewed the Justice Department as just another arm by which to carry out his agenda. He never knew or cared about the independence of DOJ, or why that was (and is) critical to the health of American democracy.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/23/politics/trump-quote-jan-6-hearings-day-5/index.html