Donoghue dismissed the theory as "absurd." At one point, when the Justice Department declined to act on a conspiracy theory claiming Italian satellites were switching votes from Trump to Biden, the Defense Department made some inquiries. But all the deputy attorneys general threatened to quit if Clark was installed to helm the Justice Department, former assistant Attorney General Steven Engel, who headed the Office of Legal Counsel, testified Thursday, and this reality convinced Trump to reconsider.ĭonoghue testified Thursday that Clark wanted to send a letter to the Georgia Legislature from the Justice Department questioning the integrity of the election, a move that "may very well have spiraled us into a constitutional crisis" if that plan had been allowed to go forward, Donoghue said.Īfter the 2020 election, Trump relentlessly pushed the Justice Department to investigate his claims of election fraud, even after they had been investigated and disproven. 3, 2021 White House call logs shown by the committee were already referring to Clark as the acting attorney general.
#FORMER ACTING ATTORNEY TESTIFIES EFFORTS SUBVERT INSTALL#
Trump's determination to install Clark as the nation's top law enforcement official was apparent - Jan. Donoghue showed handwritten notes he had taken during a call with Trump, in which the former president said, "Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the congressmen." Steven Engel, former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, from left, Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Attorney General, and Richard Donoghue, former acting Deputy Attorney General, are sworn in to testify. Three former Justice Department officials testified before the committee Thursday -– former acting deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and former Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel. In video testimony, former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann, said of Clark that "best I can tell, the only thing you know about environmental and elections challenges is they both start with 'E.'" Installing Clark and the pressure campaign on the Justice Department amounted to "essentially a political coup," committee chair Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who led the questioning Thursday, said Clark's only qualification was that "he would do whatever the president wanted him to do." Trump wanted to fire acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen - who had just taken over in December 2020, after Attorney General Bill Barr's resignation became official - and to replace him with Clark, an environmental lawyer who had never prosecuted a criminal case. Capitol focused Thursday's hearing on the efforts of then-President Donald Trump and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark to pressure the department to help overturn the 2020 election results. The House committee investigating the Jan.
0 kommentar(er)
