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The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot held another hearing Thursday on how former President Donald Trump and his allies tried to pressure Department of Justice officials to attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election in his favor rather than then-President-elect Joe Biden.
SIX KEY HOUSE JAN. 6 COMMITTEE MOMENTS ABOUT TRUMP PRESSURE ON ELECTIONS OFFICIALS
Trump tried to pressure DOJ officials to cast doubts on the integrity of the 2020 election despite the department finding no evidence of widespread fraud. The officials in question said they would resign rather than do so.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), one of two Republicans on the committee, led the questioning of the witnesses, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, and Steven Engel, former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.
Pardons
Republican members of Congress requested blanket pardons in case they faced prosecution for their claims about the election, according to an email from Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) shown by the committee that also referenced Rep. Matt Gaetz. Recorded witness testimony also named Reps. Andy Biggs and Louie Gohmert as having requested pardons from Trump.
https://twitter.com/ReedReports/status/1540080993155031040
Pressure campaign conflicted with the proper role of the DOJ, lawmakers say
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the panel’s chairman, said in an opening statement that Trump’s pressure campaign to steal the election stretched to the highest levels of government, including the DOJ.
“Donald Trump didn’t just want the Justice Department to investigate. He wanted the Justice Department to help legitimize his lies,” Thompson said.
The panel’s vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), during her own opening statement, played footage of a recorded interview with former Attorney General William Barr saying, “I shudder to think” what would have happened had the department not resisted the pressure.
Kinzinger opened his remarks by praising the witnesses for risking their careers to do the right thing and abide by their oaths to the Constitution.
“The president cannot and must not use the department to serve his own political interests,” Kinzinger said.
‘Simply not true’
Donoghue said he sought to explain to Trump in December that the allegations of fraud he was making were without merit.
“And so I felt in that conversation that was incumbent on me to make it very clear to the president what our investigations had and that we had concluded, based on actual investigations, actual witnesses, actual use of documents, that these allegations were simply not true,” Donoghue said. “And I wanted to try to cut through the noise because it was clear to us that there were a lot of people whispering in his ear, feeding him these conspiracy theories and allegations, and I felt that being very blunt in that conversation might help make it clear to the president these allegations are simply not true.”
Donoghue said he found none of the allegations made by Trump at that time credible based on the department’s own reviews.
‘Murder-suicide pact’
Trump pushed to appoint Jeffrey Clark, then the assistant attorney general for the environment and natural resources, as the head of the DOJ as Clark circulated a letter he wanted sent to swing-state officials to appoint alternate slates of pro-Trump electors. The letter pushed states to “convene in special session” to appoint the fake electors.
Donoghue said Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone called Clark’s draft letter “a murder-suicide pact” and that he wanted nothing to do with it.
Cheney said that had the letter “been released on official Department of Justice letterhead, it would have falsely informed all Americans, including those who might be inclined to come to Washington on Jan. 6, that President Trump’s election fraud allegations were likely very real.”
Jeffrey Clark
Donoghue said Trump spoke of removing him and Rosen to be replaced by Clark. Clark later told Rosen that Trump wanted to make him the acting attorney general and offered to keep him as his deputy if he reversed his position on the election.
“I didn’t accept that offer. Let’s put it that way,” Rosen said to laughter in the committee room.
The witnesses detailed a meeting with Trump at the White House in which officials at the department threatened to resign en masse if Trump followed through on appointing Clark, leading to hundreds of resignations among department leadership over Trump’s action, and Clark would be left leading a “graveyard” at the department.
The committee showed White House documents already referring to Clark as acting attorney general even though Rosen was still in the post.
“The issue really wasn’t about me,” Rosen said, arguing there were officials who could have appropriately replaced him, but rather, “the use of the Justice Department.”
“It’s just so important that the Justice Department adhere to the facts and the law and what it’s there to do,” Rosen said.
Trump White House attorney Eric Herschmann called Clark’s proposal to overturn the results “nuts” in previously recorded testimony.
Federal investigators raided Clark’s home earlier this week in connection to an investigation over his role in attempting to overturn the election.
Kinzinger addresses fellow Republicans
Kinzinger, who, like Cheney, sparked the ire of some in his party for participating in the select committee, said during his opening remarks that he wanted to “take a moment now to speak directly to my fellow Republicans.”
“Imagine the country’s top prosecutor with the power to open investigations, charge crimes, and seek imprisonment. Imagine that official pursuing the agenda of the other party instead of that of the American people,” he said.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1540055601690157063
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Kinzinger will leave Congress at the end of his term after Illinois’s redistricting process shifted the lines of his district to favor Democrats.
