Committee Vice President Liz Cheney said a key focus of today’s hearing will be a draft letter written by Jeffrey Clark, then the department’s top energy attorney who had pushed Trump’s fraud claims.
The letter was to be sent to the Georgia state legislature, Cheney said, adding that other versions of the letter would also go to other states even though Clark had evidence of the electoral fraud he claimed.
“But they were very aware of what Mr. Trump wanted the department to do,” Cheney said.
The draft letter, as shown by the committee, states that Justice Department investigations have “identified major concerns that may have affected the outcome of the elections in several states, including the state of Georgia.”
The letter recommended that Georgia convene a special session and consider approving a new list of voters.
“In fact, Donald Trump knew this was a lie. The Justice Department had repeatedly informed the President of the United States that his investigations had not found enough fraud to nullify the results of the 2020 election.” , said Cheney.
In addition to Clark’s signature, there was also a place to sign the acting Attorney General and the Acting Deputy Attorney General, according to the exhibits shown by the committee.
Jeffrey Rosen, the acting attorney general at the time, and Richard Donoghue, the acting deputy attorney general, refused to sign the letter, Cheney said.
Both Rosen and Donoghue testify at Thursday’s hearing.
“That would be a serious step for the department,” Donoghue wrote when he saw the letter, according to Cheney.
“Jeff Clark met privately with President Trump and others in the White House and agreed to help the president without telling the top management of the department that oversaw him,” Cheney said.
Some background: Trump’s push to get the Justice Department to verify his false election claims began what was a tumultuous period in the department before January 6, 2021. When Rosen and Donoghue resisted these pressures from Trump and his allies, the then president considered replacing Rosen with Clark.
DOJ officials, along with attorneys from the White House Attorney’s Office, attended a dramatic meeting on January 3, 2021 at the Oval Office with Clark and Rosen present, where Trump finally retired. of his plan to install Clark as chief. of the Justice Department, after Rosen, Donoghue and Engel threatened to resign in protest.