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Jan. 6 hearing: Trump told DOJ officials 'just say it was corrupt, and leave the rest up to me' - CNBC
Jun 24, 2022 4 mins, 3 secs

Trump planned to install a new acting attorney general, Jeffrey Clark, to help spread his false claim that President Joe Biden's electoral victory was rigged through widespread fraud, the committee said.

Three ex-DOJ officials — former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and former assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel Steven Engel — said they threatened to resign over the scheme and said hundreds of others would do the same.

3, 2021, backed off the possibility of installing Clark as acting attorney general after being warned that "hundreds" of DOJ officials could resign within days.

Engel told Trump that Clark would be "leading a graveyard" if he was appointed, according to Donoghue.

— Kevin Breuninger.

3, 2021, Donoghue said he told Trump that Clark could never deliver on his promise to quickly uncover widespread fraud if he was put atop the DOJ — in part because he was not "competent" enough.

Assistant attorney generals vowed to resign en masse if Trump replaced Rosen with Clark as acting attorney general, Donoghue testified.

Former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue said Acting AG Jeffrey Rosen told Trump that the DOJ could not and would not "snap its fingers" and change the outcome of the presidential election.

"He responded very quickly, and said, essentially, 'That's not what I'm asking you to do, what I'm asking you to do is just say it was corrupt and leave the rest up to me and the Republican congressmen,'" Donoghue said Trump told them.

While DOJ found "isolated instances of fraud," Donoghue said, "none of them came close to calling into question the outcome of the election in any individual state.".

Even after his fraud claims were challenged in contentious meetings with top DOJ officials, Clark continued to "move down this path" between late December and early January, Donoghue said.

Clark also got a briefing from the office of the Director of National Intelligence about purported foreign intelligence interference in the election, Donoghue said.

3, 2021, Oval Office meeting in which Clark pitched Trump to install him as acting attorney general.

Clark said if he was given the DOJ leadership role, he would uncover widespread fraud, would send out a letter to states suggesting election fraud had been uncovered, Donoghue said.

Clark claimed that this was a last opportunity to "sort of set things straight" with the election, Donoghue said.

He said Clark retorted that he'd done lots of complex appellate and civil litigation and environmental litigation — to which Donoghue replied: "That's right, you're an environmental lawyer.

Former White House senior advisor Eric Herschmann told the committee that when Clark told him about his plans to challenge the election results, Herschmann told him he would be committing a crime.

"Congratulations, you just admitted your first step or act you'd take as attorney general would be committing a felony and violating Rule 6C.

You're clearly the right candidate for the job," Herschmann said he told Clark.

Trump's former attorney general, William Barr, told the committee that he was glad to have been in the position to be able to say that he "didn't think there was fraud" in the 2020 election.

Clark had no evidence of widespread election fraud that could have tipped the outcome of the race, but he knew what Trump wanted him to do, Cheney said.

that President Trump's election fraud allegations were likely very real," Cheney said.

Former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue said White House counsel Pat Cipollone told him: "You know, that letter that this guy wants to send, that letter is a murder-suicide pact, it's going to damage everyone who touches it.".

Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said the committee has much more evidence to reveal in its investigation into the Capitol riot.

"Our committee has just begun to show America the evidence that we have gathered," Cheney said in her opening remarks.

Trump wanted the Department of Justice to actively aid in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, Thompson said at the start of the hearing.

To send a letter to six state legislatures urging them to consider altering the election results," Thompson said.

When these efforts failed, Trump sought to replace then-acting Attorney General Rosen with Clark, he said.

The panel plans to show how Trump wanted to install Clark as acting attorney general as part of his plan to overturn Biden's victory in the 2020 election.

— Kevin Breuninger

Scott Perry, R-Pa., who allegedly tried to get pro-Trump DOJ official Clark installed as acting attorney general, and has refused to testify before the committee

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