The Story of Trump's Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election Is Coming Into Focus
Late Thursday afternoon, the Senate Judiciary Committee released a scalding interim report about the previous administration*’s attempt to enlist the Department of Justice in the former president*'s campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Beginning on the day former Attorney General William Barr announced his resignation and continuing almost until the January 6 insurrection, Trump directly and repeatedly asked DOJ’s acting leadership to initiate investigations, file lawsuits on his behalf, and publicly declare the 2020 election “corrupt.” Documents and testimony confirm that Rosen, and in some cases other senior DOJ leaders, participated in several calls and meetings where Trump directly raised discredited claims of election fraud and asked why DOJ was not doing more to address them.
In attempting to enlist DOJ for personal, political purposes in an effort to maintain his hold on the White House, Trump grossly abused the power of the presidency. He also arguably violated the criminal provisions of the Hatch Act, which prevent any person—including the President—from commanding federal government employees to engage in political activity.
Low bridge for Mark Meadows here.
Meadows asked Rosen to have DOJ investigate at least four categories of false election fraud claims that Trump and his allies were pushing. Between December 29 and January 1, Meadows asked Rosen to have DOJ:
Investigate various discredited claims of election fraud in Georgia that the Trump campaign was simultaneously advancing in a lawsuit that the Georgia Supreme Court had refused to hear on an expedited basis;
Investigate false claims of “signature match anomalies” in Fulton County, Georgia, even though Republican state elections officials had made clear “there has been no evidence presented of any issues with the signature matching process.”
Investigate a theory known as “Italygate,” which was promoted by an ally of the President’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and which held that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and an Italian IT contractor used military satellites to manipulate voting machines and change Trump votes to Biden votes. Meadows also asked DOJ to meet with Giuliani on Italygate and other election fraud claims.
Investigate a series of claims of election fraud in New Mexico that had been widely refuted and in some cases rejected by the courts, including a claim that Dominion Voting Systems machines caused late-night “vote dumps” for Democratic candidates.
You may recall that the last two items were prominently featured in the Giuliani-Powell road show during the post-election period. (I remember when the Italian Satellite theory was broached—in Michigan, I think. I nearly dislocated my spine popping my head up in surprise.) They were all singing from the same hymnal for a very long time. And, inevitably, there’s a straight line to the events of January 6.
In addition to Trump White House officials, including the President himself, outside Trump allies with ties to the “Stop the Steal” movement and the January 6 insurrection also pressured DOJ to help overturn the election results.
The “allies” included Cleta Mitchell, the Trump campaign lawyer who also was on the call with the president* when he pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find him 11,780 votes.
Gradually, between this, the special commission, and the endless avalanche of new books, the story of what happened in the White House in the aftermath of the election is becoming very rounded and complete, one thing leading inexorably to another, the same actors playing different parts in all the dramas. It is coalescing into a very well-plotted, easily accessible horror story. It is all beginning to make awful sense.
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