Former President Donald Trump and a lawyer for the Department of Justice reportedly planned to have the acting attorney general removed from his post weeks before President Biden was inaugurated.
Jeffrey Clark, who was the department’s civil division acting head, and the president were convinced that then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen was not doing enough to challenge the results of the November election, according to the New York Times, which cited four former Trump administration officials.
As soon as Rosen was appointed to his acting role on Dec. 15, the president began to pressure him on the matter, urging him to appoint special counsels to investigate accusations of widespread voter fraud, according to the New York Times. Rosen reportedly refused, telling the president that the department had found no evidence of such a phenomenon.
Clark allegedly drafted a letter that he wanted the Justice Department to send to legislators in Georgia who claimed that the department was investigating accusations of voter fraud in the state, urging them to void Biden’s win. Rosen and then-Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue allegedly refused to send it.
On the weekend after New Year’s Eve, Clark reportedly met with the president to discuss his strategy. Clark then called Rosen on Sunday to inform him that the president intended to remove Rosen from the post and replace him with Clark. Rosen demanded to hear the news directly from the president, according to the report.
The department’s senior leaders allegedly called one another and agreed that if Rosen was ousted, they would resign en masse.
When the president met with Rosen and Clark, the two presented their arguments. Two officials compared the scene to an episode of The Apprentice, according to the New York Times. In the end, the president decided not to fire Rosen, apparently being swayed by the idea that doing so would bring chaos to the department and possible recriminations from those in his own party.
Trump and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Clark denied that he was part of any plot to remove Rosen.
He said, “There was a candid discussion of options and pros and cons with the president. It is unfortunate that those who were part of a privileged legal conversation would comment in public about such internal deliberations, while also distorting any discussions.”
