In the fifth televised hearing of the January 6th Committee, we heard live testimony from former senior Department of Justice officials Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue, and Steven Engel, who refused Trump’s pressure campaign in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Witnesses revealed that Trump and his MAGA allies attempted to publicly pressure the Justice Department to “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen,” and prosecute unfounded claims of ‘fraud,’ as part of their criminal conspiracy to overturn the election. The committee also presented evidence of MAGA Republicans who colluded in pressuring the DOJ and even asked for blanket, preemptive pardons for their roles in the plot, including Representatives Gaetz, Biggs, Perry, Gohmert, Greene, and Brooks. The Select Committee continues to lay out the evidence proving that Trump and MAGA Republicans have never stopped trying to overturn the will of voters.
CNN: Trump to DOJ: ‘Just Say That The Election Was Corrupt’. “The committee is focusing on how former President Donald Trump tried to use the Justice Department to bolster his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. […] Here are the key moments so far: Clark wrote a draft of a letter that was intended to be sent to the Georgia state legislature and other states claiming election fraud and urging states to convene a special session. […] Donoghue said he tried to explain to Trump on “numerous occasions” that there was no evidence of fraud. […] Trump considered installing [Clark] as attorney general so he could use the powers of the Justice Department to overturn the 2020 election. […] Former Attorney General Bill Bar told the House select committee that he authorized the Justice Department to investigate election fraud in 2020 because if he didn’t, he wasn’t “sure we would have a transition at all.” […] Federal investigators on Wednesday conducted a search of Clark’s home.” [CNN, 6/23/22]
Forbes: Jan. 6 Hearings: Trump Asked Attorney General To Seize Voting Machines, DOJ Officials Say. “Mr. President, you should have the leadership that you want,” Donoghue said he told Trump after the president suggested firing him. “But, understand, the United States Justice Department functions on facts, evidence and law. And those are not going to change.” [Forbes, 6/23/22]
The Hill: Official’s Notes Show Trump Wanted DOJ To Declare Election Corrupt. “Justice Department officials’ unwavering resistance to former President Trump’s attempts to use their agency to legitimize his bid to remain in office will be the focus of Thursday’s hearing from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. “In the remaining weeks of the transition, President Trump tried to pressure the Department of Justice and help him overturn the 2020 election,” a select committee aide told reporters Wednesday. Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s former legal adviser, told the select committee that he had pushed for someone to be installed as attorney general who would not be worried about using the Justice Department to pursue Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud.” [The Hill, 6/23/22]
Associated Press: 1/6 Panel Hears Of Trump’s Pressure On Justice Department. “Donald Trump hounded the Justice Department to pursue his false election fraud claims, contacting the agency’s leader “virtually every day” and striving in vain to enlist top law enforcement officials in a desperate bid to stay in power, according to testimony Thursday to the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Three Trump-era Justice Department officials testified that Trump was fixated on voter fraud claims and insisted they pursue them despite being repeatedly told that none of the allegations had any merit.” [Associated Press, 6/23/22]
Los Angeles Times: Oscar Winner Sean Penn Attends Jan. 6 Hearing On Capitol Hill. “Oscar-winner Sean Penn attended the fifth day of Jan. 6 committee hearings on Capitol Hill on Thursday…The House select committee has moved into its second week of hearings as it reveals the findings of its yearlong investigation of the insurrection. Penn, 61, was seated next to former Washington Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges and former D.C. police officer and CNN contributor Michael Fanone. ‘I’m just here to observe just [as a] another citizen,’ he told reporters, according to CNN. ‘I think we all saw what happened on Jan. 6 and now we’re looking to see if justice comes on the other side of it,’ he added, noting that he had been following the hearings.” [LA Times, 6/23/22]
New York Times: Trump Tried to Misuse Justice Dept., Former Officials Say. “ White House lawyer told Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department lawyer who wanted to push forward with a plan by former President Donald J. Trump to subvert the 2020 election results based on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud, that he would be committing a felony if he did so, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol revealed on Thursday. As the committee opened its fifth hearing revealing the findings of its investigation, lawmakers played video of Eric Herschmann, a lawyer in the White House Counsel’s Office recounting how, after hearing Mr. Clark’s proposal, he used a pair of expletives and said: “Congratulations, you just admitted your first step or act you’d take as attorney general would be committing a felony.” [New York Times, 6/23/22]
Wall Street Journal: Feds Search Home of Trump Ally Clark; DOJ Officials Testify at Jan. 6 Hearing. “Investigators searched the home of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark this week, in an escalation of an inquiry into efforts by former President Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. DOJ officials are testifying at Thursday’s hearing on efforts to resist plans to install Mr. Clark atop the Justice Department.” [Wall Street Journal, 6/23/22]
Washington Post: Trump Called Jan. 6 Participants ‘Smart,’ Filmmaker Says. “Former president Donald Trump called those who participated in the demonstrations and Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, “smart” during a defiant interview last spring, according to a documentary filmmaker who was granted extensive access to Trump and his family and is now cooperating with the House committee investigating the insurrection. […] The documentary filmmaker said Trump never conceded he lost the election — and repeated his same claims of fraud and protestations that he won the election in private as he did in public.” [Washington Post, 6/23/22]
In The States
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Former White House Aide Says Marjorie Greene Requested Pardon After Jan. 6. “U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene contacted the White House to request a pardon after the deadly riot on Jan. 6, 2021, according to a former White House aide. Greene’s office told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week that she did not request a pardon for any reason at any time, and criticized the media for spreading what a spokesman described as a “conspiracy theory.’ But a former aide to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows told a different story during testimony to the U.S. House committee investigating the insurrection, video of which was shared at Thursday’s hearing.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/23/22]
AZCentral: Trump Campaign Official Subpoenaed By Fbi Appears To Be At Meeting Of Fake Arizona Electors. “A campaign official for President Donald Trump, who appears to be at the meeting where 11 Arizona Republicans falsely declared themselves the state’s presidential electors, was subpoenaed Wednesday by the Department of Justice, the Washington Post reported. The campaign to effectuate this scheme, in Arizona and other states, has been the subject of the nationally televised hearings of the House Select Committee that is investigating the riot at the Capitol. Federal agents subpoenaed Lane and three other Republicans associated with a scheme to create alternate sets of Republican electors and send those documents to Congress, the Post reported. The FBI investigations were part of the agency’s look into the causes of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.” [AZCentral, 6/23/22]
Detroit Free Press: Subpoenas Hit Michigan As Fake Elector Probe Widens. “At least one of Michigan’s fake electors has been served with a subpoena and interviewed by federal agents, a sign of widening interest in states where some Republican organizers pushed slates of illegitimate electors for former President Donald Trump in 2020. […] Video released Tuesday by the U.S. committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol included testimony from former Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox. Cox said a plot to seat alternate electors in favor of Trump included plans to potentially stay overnight in the Michigan Capitol, which she called ‘insane and inappropriate.’” [Detroit Free Press, 6/23/22]
The Nevada Independent: Report: Nevada GOP Chairman Served FBI Search Warrant Over ‘Alternate Elector’ Actions. “FBI agents on Wednesday served a search warrant involving Michael McDonald, the leader of Nevada’s Republican Party, as part of an investigation tied to a fake elector scheme in the aftermath of the 2020 election, according to a report from KLAS 8 News Now that cited anonymous sources. The reported FBI investigation comes as the 2020 election aftermath is in the spotlight in Washington, D.C., where the House select committee is investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The committee held its fourth hearing on Tuesday, with hearings expected to continue into July.” [Nevada Independent, 6/23/22]
Pennsylvania Capital Star: U.S. House Committee Outlines How U.S. Rep. Scott Perry Pushed To Restructure Justice Department. “In the days leading up to the Jan. 6, 2020, attack on the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry pushed to restructure the Department of Justice as former President Donald Trump and his allies led efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The U.S. House committee investigating the Capitol riot subpoenaed Perry, R-10th District, last year, citing his involvement in attempts to appoint Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general. Clark, a former Justice Department official, played a role in Trump’s false claims that voter fraud in swing states, specifically Georgia, contributed to his loss against now-President Joe Biden. Though Perry has refused to testify before the panel, he was a core focus at Thursday’s hearing, which centered on efforts to pressure the Justice Department into supporting unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.” [Pennsylvania Capital Star, 6/23/22]
Pittsburgh Post Gazette: FBI Interviews Allegheny County Gop Chair Sam Demarco About Trump’s Attempt To Plant Fake Electors. “FBI agents interviewed the chairman of the Allegheny County Republican Party at his home early Thursday morning as part of a nationwide investigation into former President Donald Trump’s attempt to send alternate electors from key swing states to Washington to overturn the 2020 election. Agents spent about an hour at party chairman Sam DeMarco’s Oakdale home and served him with a subpoena for communications between him, members of the Trump campaign and legal team, and Trump electors in Pennsylvania, Mr. DeMarco told the Post-Gazette on Thursday.” [Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 6/23/22]
Wisconsin State Journal: Donald Trump Attorney Coordinated With Ron Johnson To Pass False Elector Document To Mike Pence. “A former Dane County judge who legally represented President Donald Trump coordinated with U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to pass documents falsely stating Trump won Wisconsin to then-Vice President Mike Pence as Pence was set to confirm Joe Biden as the next president on Jan. 6, 2021, newly revealed messages show. The Wisconsin document, signed by 10 Republicans who convened in the state Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, was filled out on the same day the Democratic slate of Wisconsin electors met in the same building to deliver the state’s 10 electoral votes to Biden. The meeting of Republicans occurred after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Biden had won the election.” [The Wisconsin State Journal, 6/23/22]
