There was no legal basis for appointing a special Justice Department attorney to investigate election fraud in 2020, even though President Donald Trump demanded it, a senior department official said Thursday.
Steven Engel, who was the head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Advice, which provides legal advice to the executive branch, described the saga in testimony before the Jan. 6 select committee.
“It wasn’t legally available,” Engel said.
CNN and other media reported in December 2020 that Trump had raised the idea of appointing Sidney Powell as special counsel, but this received a major rejection from senior White House officials. Powell is a well-known conspiracy theorist who represented former Trump adviser Michael Flynn during his criminal trial and has promoted fantastic and false theories of mass electoral fraud.
The committee played a clip of Powell’s statement describing Trump’s desire to nominate her for office.
“He asked me to be a special lawyer to address electoral issues and to gather evidence and he was extremely frustrated by the lack of, I would call law enforcement, of any of the government agencies that are supposed to have act to protect the rule of law in our republic, ”he said in the video.
Then-Attorney General Bill Barr refused to appoint a special attorney, and after Barr resigned in December 2020, Trump continued to pressure senior Justice Department officials to appoint a special attorney, including Barr’s successor, Jeffrey. Rosen, who also refused.
“Neither Barr nor Rosen believed that (a special lawyer) was appropriate or necessary in this case,” Engel said.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican who has been in charge of much of the interrogation Thursday, condemned Trump even for considering him a special attorney.
“An investigation led by a special lawyer would only create an illusion of legitimacy and false coverage for those who want to oppose” the 2020 elections, “including those who stormed the Capitol on January 6,” he said. to say.