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Press Release

Hearing Takeaway: Trump and His MAGA Allies, Including Republican Members of Congress, Illegally Pressured the Department of Justice to Overturn an Election He Knew He Lost

By June 23, 2022No Comments

PRESS RELEASE Contact: [email protected]
For Immediate Release
Date: June 23, 2022

Former Trump Lawyer Eric Herschmann: “Nixon’s Pardon Was Never That Broad.”

Washington, DC – In the fifth hearing of the January 6th Select Committee, we learned more about the pressure campaign of Trump and his MAGA allies to overturn the results of the election. 

“Trump and his MAGA allies planned, promoted, and paid for the months-long conspiracy to overturn the results of the election,” said Defend Democracy Project Communications Director Nicole Haley. “We now have seen overwhelming evidence that current members of Congress knew about the plot and helped Trump with his conspiracy, even asking for pardons for the scheme they knew was illegal. No one is above accountability – not even former presidents or members of Congress.”

1. Trump pressured the DOJ to legitimize his lies and insane conspiracy theories about the election, giving Trump and his allies the pretext to overturn the election they lost. According to experts, these actions are criminal.

    • Trump told Former Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue: “Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” Former US Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted: “This is the smoking gun.”
    • Former Acting Attorney General Jeffrey  Rosen testified that Mark Meadows contacted the Department of Justice, asking that they investigate Rep. Perry’s unfounded election conspiracy theory about Italian satellites switching votes. 
    • Trump had been told over and over that he lost the election, yet he continued to demand the DOJ investigate claims of election fraud.

2. After DOJ officials refused to help Trump overturn the election, Trump tried to install an unqualified lackey, Jeffrey Clark, as Acting Attorney General solely because Clark was willing to help stop the transfer of power.

    • Trump believed Clark would “put the full weight of the Justice Department behind the effort to overturn the election.”
    • DOJ witnesses detailed a letter Clark intended to send which would have encouraged states to call “special sessions” to submit illegal slates of electors.
    • DOJ officials threatened to quit rather than work for Clark in his attempt to overturn the election. 
    • Witnesses detailed a meeting where they warned Trump not to appoint Clark, saying “Steve [Engel] pointed out, ‘Jeff Clark will be left leading a graveyard.’”

3. Members of Congress assisted Trump in his illegal scheme to overturn the election and requested pardons to avoid accountability for their criminal involvement.

    • The committee played a video highlighting members of Congress who amplified Trump’s lies leading up to the January 6th attacks, including MAGA Republican Representatives Louie Gohmert (TX-1), Andy Biggs (AZ-5), Paul Gosar (AZ-4), Matt Gaetz (FL-1), Jim Jordan (OH-4), and Mo Brooks (AL-5). 
    • Republicans asked the White House for blanket, preemptive pardons for all members of Congress who voted against certifying the election in Arizona and Pennsylvania, thus participating in the conspiracy.
    • The committee detailed a White House meeting of members of Congress to overturn the election they’d lost including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Scott Perry.
    • Rep. Perry introduced Jeff Clark to Trump as a replacement for the Acting Attorney General, and later urged White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to elevate Clark in the Department of Justice for the sole purpose of aiding in the attempt to overturn the election.

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The Select Committee will continue to lay out real evidence gathered by non-partisan career prosecutors proving that Trump and his MAGA allies planned, promoted, and paid for a criminal conspiracy to overturn an election they lost. 

This criminal conspiracy extends well beyond the violence perpetrated on January 6, 2021, that injured 140 police officers, including making it harder for people to vote, attempting to appoint bogus electors to overturn the will of voters, and intimidating state officials to change the results in contested states. 

Getting to the truth during these hearings and then demanding accountability at the courts and the ballot box is how we stop the current MAGA campaign to sabotage future elections by changing state laws, threatening state officials, and packing election administration offices so that they can have the final say over election results – even when they lose.

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