Two very long story sources - same subject (formatted for easy reading and to fit the blog). Context not changed:
The first story is from The Daily Beast with this headline:
“Trump
Pushed Barr’s DOJ Successor to Probe His Big Election Lie: New Emails”
The second story is from PBS here with this headline:
“Emails show
Trump pressured Justice Department to investigate unsubstantiated 2020 election
fraud claims”
Emails released by
House Democrats show Trump pressuring Jeffrey Rosen to take up discredited
fraud claims even before he was named as acting AG to replace AG William Barr.
Trump did not even wait until he announced the departure of
Bill Barr from the Justice Department before piling pressure on his successor
to probe discredited election fraud claims.
Emails turned over to congressional
investigators clearly show Trump and his aides, in the last days and
weeks of his presidency, repeatedly tried to push Jeffrey A. Rosen, who became
acting attorney general last December, to reopen an investigation into stolen
election claims already thrown out by over 60 court cases.
Rep. Carolyn B.
Maloney (D-NY), chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform said in a statement released June 15: “These documents show that President Trump
tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt
to overturn an election that he lost. Those who aided or witnessed President
Trump’s unlawful actions must answer the Committee’s questions about this
attempted subversion of democracy. My Committee is committed to ensuring that
the events leading to the violent January 6 insurrection are fully
investigated.”
In one instance, Trump’s office sent false election fraud
claims to two DOJ officials, then quickly announced that Attorney General Bill
Barr — who had publicly contradicted
Trump’s narrative — would be stepping down, and that he was promoting the
officials to the top two positions at the agency with less than a month left in
power before Biden was to take office.
Shortly before 5 p.m. on December 14, 2020, the day state
electors would be certifying the EC votes, White House assistant Molly Michael
emailed Rosen with the subject line “From POTUS” with an attachment that included
wild and bogus claims about supposed voter fraud in Antrim County, MI.
Three pages were
devoted exclusively to talking points, which included arguments and
counterarguments that beg belief that they actually came from the president
saying: “This is a seditious conspiracy to undermine the election process
and the will of the American people: A Cover-up is happening regarding the
voting machines in MI, and MI cannot certify for Biden.”
At roughly the same time, then-Principal Associate Deputy AG
Richard Donoghue’s assistant sent the same thing to U.S. Attorneys for the
Eastern and Western Districts of Michigan: Matthew Schneider and Andrew Birge.
Molly Michael wrote that she also had emailed the document
to Donoghue that morning informing him that Trump had asked her to send the
document to Schneider and Birge. She also shared the briefing with White House
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
Forty minutes after that, Trump
tweeted that Barr was out and that Rosen and Donoghue were in as the Acting AG
and the Acting Deputy AG.
In another example cited by the House committee, Trump not
only pressed into service a private attorney to convince the DOJ to file a
Supreme Court lawsuit in an attempt to void the election, but he also used the
weight and power of the White House in a frantic attempt to do so.
On December 29, Molly
Michael again emailed Rosen and Donoghue, this time adding Acting Solicitor
General Jeffrey Wall as a recipient, writing: “The President asked me to
send the attached draft document for your review.” (She attached a draft of a
legal brief and a phone number to call if they wanted to speak with Trump
directly). It was signed: “Thanks
and Happy New Year!”
Fifty-four pages in length, the draft Supreme Court
complaint was asking the high court to: “Declare that the Electoral College votes
cast in six states that Trump had lost: PA, GA, MI, WI, AZ, and NV were in
violation of the Electors Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution and cannot be counted.”
It went on to demand a “special election for president
in those states.”
Less than an hour later, attorney Kurt Olsen, a private
lawyer who had represented TX in its unsuccessful lawsuit to reverse the
results of the 2020 election, contacted numerous DOJ officials on Trump’s
orders, attaching the complaint for their review.
In an email to John
Moran, Rosen’s Chief of Staff, Olsen wrote: “As I said on our call, the
President has seen this complaint, and he directed me last night to brief AG
Rosen in person today and discuss bringing this action. I have been instructed
to report back to the President this afternoon after this meeting.”
Earlier that same morning,
Olsen wrote to Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall complaining that he hadn’t
been able to get in touch with Rosen stating: “This is an urgent matter.”
A flurry of subsequent emails among DOJ staffers show that
Rosen did in fact speak with Olsen about Trump’s attempt to overturn the
election, and asked Olsen for any precedential Supreme Court decisions that
would bolster his arguments.
The emails obtained by the House committee also reveal an
attempt by Trump to get Assistant AG Jeffrey Clark onboard with his false fraud
claims. A day after Trump had met with Clark, Rosen, and other DOJ officials on
New Year’s Eve 2020 and leaned on them to help him reverse then-President-Elect
Joe Biden’s victory, Mark Meadows
emailed Rosen and told him: “Have Clark investigate signature match
anomalies in Fulton County, GA.”
In an email with the subject line “Atlanta,” Rosen then sent
Clark a cell phone number for then-U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of
Georgia Byung J. Pak.
Then shortly after 3
p.m., Rosen pinged the Chief of Staff to the Director of National Intelligence
(DNI), Dustin Carmack, saying: “Dustin please call me when you can.”
Rosen’s email to Carmack read with a phone number that has
been redacted from the House committee’s public release.
Then on January 3,
Clark told Rosen: “I spoke to the source (referring to Pak) and I am on
with the guy who took the video right now. Working on it. More due diligence to
do.” (He was apparently was referring to already-discredited
footage that conspiracy theorists wrongly believed showed evidence
of vote manipulation.)
Trump in a phone call
later that same day with GA Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, he said about Pak: “You have your never-Trumper U.S.
attorney there.”
Trump also met with DOJ leaders on January 3 for what was
reportedly a wild “Apprentice-like battle,” according to the House committee.
They pondered about firing Rosen and replacing him with Clark, who Trump saw as
more willing to go along with his misguided fraud claims than Rosen.
When Rosen kept his
job, Associate Deputy AG Patrick Hovakimian that evening emailed a group of DOJ
staffers saying: “I only have limited visibility into this, but it sounds
like Rosen and the cause of justice won.”
John Demers, who
headed the National Security Division at DOJ, replied simply: “Amazing.”
About an hour later,
Donoghue emailed Pak with a phone number and the message: “Please call
ASAP.”
As Trump’s lone term in office wound down, Mark Meadows
continued to pressure the DOJ about investigating baseless election fraud
conspiracy theories pushed by Trump.
On December 30,
Meadows received an email from lawyer, conservative activist, and Trump adviser
Cleta Mitchell, whose note offered to send 1,800 pages of exhibits regarding a
petition she filed in GA state court to overturn Biden’s win, saying: “I
don’t know what is happening re: investigating the video issues in Fulton
County. And the equipment. We didn’t include the equipment in our lawsuit but
there are certainly many issues and questions that some resources need to be
devoted to reviewing. We had no way to conduct proper due diligence to include
the equipment/software.”
Twenty minutes later,
Meadows forwarded Mitchell’s email to Rosen, asking: “Can you have your
team look into these allegations of wrongdoing. Only the alleged fraudulent
activity.”
Another email Meadows
sent to Rosen included a translation of a letter he received from an Italian
aviation executive named Carlo Goria, who claimed: “That he had direct
knowledge of a nefarious scheme carried out in Italy that altered U.S. voting
results in coordination with senior U.S. intelligence officials (at the CIA),
that was then uploaded to military satellites.”
Goria insisted the data showed Trump to have won the 2020
election. The accusations had always been pure fantasy, since Trump and his
backers went on to lose 61 court challenges
claiming election fraud.
Rosen responded to that
saying: “I flatly refused, said I would not be giving any special treatment
to Giuliani or any of his witnesses.”
On New Year’s Day,
Meadows turned the screws on Rosen. Shortly after 3 p.m., he emailed a YouTube video to Rosen, titled: “Brad Johnson: Rome, Satellites, Servers:
an Update.”
Rosen forwarded it to
Donoghue, who replied tersely: “Pure insanity.”
Rosen wrote back:
“Yes.”
Later Rosen said:
“After that message, I was asked to have FBI meet with Brad Johnson, and I
responded that Brad Johnson could call or walk into FBI’s Washington Field
Office with any evidence he purports to have. On a follow up call, I learned
that Johnson is working with Giuliani, who regarded my comments as an insult. He
asked if I would reconsider, and I flatly refused. I said I would not be giving
any special treatment to Rudy Giuliani or any of his witnesses, and I
re-affirmed yet again that I will not talk to Giuliani about any of this.”
At 4:13 p.m., Meadows
emailed Rosen again, this time to press him about allegations of signature
match anomalies in Fulton county, GA writing: “Can you get Jeff Clark to
engage on this issue immediately to determine if there is any truth to this
allegation?”
Rosen forwarded
Meadows request to Donoghue adding: “Can you believe this? I am not going
to respond to the message below.”
A few minutes before 7 p.m., Meadows emailed Rosen for a
fifth time, forwarding a document sent by NM GOP Party Chairman Steve Pearce,
whose list of complaints alleged wrongdoing against voting machine company
Dominion. (Note: Those allegations were roundly debunked).
Meadows instructed
Rosen: “Can you forward this list to your team to review the allegations
contained herein?”
The House committee has now requested that Meadows,
Donoghue, Clark, Hovakimian, and Pak all sit for transcribed interviews
regarding Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
My related earlier post on this topic
here.
My 2 cents: Wow – what
long trail of intrigue and deceit and downright criminal activities and all
detailed and in writing.
The bottom line is simple:
Justice must prevail against the culprits listed above who pushed the voter
fraud conspiracy ordered by Trump and then pushed by his henchman Mark Meadows
and a few others.
Note that all that was going
on only a few days before that dreadful day on January 6 when the Capitol was
stormed with the aim to stop the final official EC confirmation of the election
being overseen by VP Mike Pence.
We know the rest of that
story – now the above emails fill in a lot of blank spots from behind the dark
scenes under Trump’s careful eye and levels of control. Hard evidence that prove
more and more that Trump was indeed running things and events of that dreadful
day.
More later on this as time
goes by - I’m sure.
Thanks for stopping by.
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