Donald Trump was trying to cling to power during the last weeks of his presidency. According to Yahoo News, newly released emails reveal that Trump and his allies pressured the Justice Department to investigate baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. Trump, for the record, still hasn’t conceded the race that he lost to Joe Biden in both the electoral and popular vote over seven months ago. As it happens, it isn’t Hillary Clinton’s emails that are a problem, after all — it’s the Trump administration’s that are concerning.
“The emails, released Tuesday by the House Oversight Committee, reveal in new detail how Trump, his White House chief of staff and other allies pressured members of the U.S. government to challenge the 2020 election over false claims,” the report states.
“The emails also show the extent to which Trump worked to enlist then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen in his campaign’s failing legal efforts to challenge the election result, including suggesting filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court,” the report continues.
“Those sent to Rosen include debunked conspiracy theories and false information about voter fraud,” the outlet reports. Trump whipped a mob of his supporters into a frenzy on Jan. 6, which led them to start a riot at the Capitol.
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“Several times, for example, Trump allies wrote about Dominion Voting Systems’ potential voter fraud, a conspiracy theory now the subject of a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit by the voting company,” the outlet reports. “Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, asked about investigating allegations of voter fraud caused by satellites from Italy.”
This part is just insane:
On Dec. 29, the Trump assistant emailed Rosen, Donoghue and Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall and included a draft legal brief for the Supreme Court, with a phone number where they could contact the president directly. The proposed complaint asked the court to “declare that the Electoral College votes cast” in the six battleground states that Trump lost “cannot be counted.” It asked for the court to order a special election in those states
Interestingly, Rosen may be willing to reveal new details about the twice-impeached one-term president’s last-minute efforts to remain in office despite his election loss to Biden. The Washington Post reports that Rosen is in discussions with House Oversight Committee officials about sitting for a transcribed interview.
And according to Yahoo News’s report, Rosen knows a lot.
“Meadows tried to have Rosen investigate the conspiracy theories and pushed the acting attorney general to meet with an ally of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani who was pitching unfounded election conspiracies that Italy was using satellites and military technology to change votes,” the report states.
“After Rosen forwarded Meadows’ email, Rich Donoghue, the acting deputy attorney general, sent a note to Rosen that said, “pure insanity.” Rosen wrote back that he was asked to have the FBI meet with Giuliani’s associate and he said no, insisting the man could follow the FBI’s normal protocol for tips and just call the public tip line or take his information to an FBI field office. But Rosen said Giuliani was “insulted” by the answer,” the report adds.
“Asked if I would reconsider, I flatly refused, said I would not be giving any special treatment to Giuliani or any of his ‘witnesses,’ and re-affirmed yet again that I will not talk to Giuliani about any of this,” Rosen wrote.
Yeah, it sure sounds like Rosen will cooperate.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
