On December 27th Donald Trump had a teleconference with his Acting Attorney General, Jeffrey Rosen, and his Deputy Richard Donoghue. Donoghue kept hand written notes of the call. Earlier this week the DOJ announced these notes were not privileged and could be released.
According to Donoghue’s notes Trump arranged the call to get an update on the DOJ’s investigations into widespread voter fraud. Rosen and Donoghue advised the President that their investigations had been unable to find any evidence of widespread voter fraud. Donoghue told Trump that “much of the info you’re getting is false,” and that while the DOJ had conducted “dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews” there was no evidence to support Trump’s claims. Donoghue told Trump that “we look at allegations but they don’t pan out.” Rosen and Donoghue went through a variety of specific allegations, and the investigations of them, explaining why they didn’t pan out.
Per Donoghue’s notes Trump’s response was, “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me.” Trump also threatened to fire Rosen and put his crony Jeff Clark in as Acting Attorney General. “People tell me Jeff Clark is great, I should put him in,“ Trump said, adding that “People want me to replace D.O.J. leadership.”
Trump directed the heads of the Department of Justice to tell this lie so his allies in Congress could use it as a justification to overturn the results of the election and he threatened to fire them if they didn’t tell this lie. Trump suggested that those allies included Jim Jordan, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
There was a real effort to steal this election. It was done by the then President of the United States to corruptly stay in power. He first tried recounts. When that failed Trump pressured local officials to not certify the results. When that failed he pressured state officials to not certify the results (e.g. his call to Georgia Secretary of State of Raffensperger). When that failed he pressured state legislators to overturn the lawfully certified results of their own states. When that failed he had Texas sue other states over their elections, an effort which famously flopped at the Supreme Court.
He ordered his own DOJ to investigate voter fraud. His Attorney General sent a controversial memo ordering AGs nationwide to investigate any credible claims of voter fraud. When they found none, and Trump’s own Attorney General and his Assistant told Trump that, he ordered them to lie and say the election was corrupt and illegal.
Trump was willing to lie to stay in power. Trump was willing to order his subordinates to lie to stay in power. To stay in power Trump was willing to threaten to fire those subordinates if they didn’t lie as he directed them to do.
A corrupt President using corruption to corruptly stay in power was one of our Founders greatest fears. It happened.
When all that failed Trump had but one last desperate act to try to stay in power. That played out on January 6th, an event he and his allies arranged.
The DOJ has also advised Rosen, Donoghue and other former DOJ officials that they can provide unrestricted testimony to the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee .You can see Donoghue’s full hand written notes HERE.
