Committee criticizes Trump’s “brazen” pressure on the Justice Department

On Thursday, June 23, the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the attack on the Capitol attacked the attempts “shameless” From Donald Trump to pressure the Department of Justice to support his false allegations of election fraud about the presidential election that Joe Biden won. Au cours de cette cinquième audition publique, les neuf élus – sept démocrates et deux républicains répudiés par leur parti – ont détaillé les pressions exercées par M. Trump sur le Cla ministère et nom fêrk, un ses de ses les être Jeff ready for Interfering with the results of the presidential elections.

Donald Trump didn’t just want the Department of Justice to investigate. He wanted the Justice Department to help him legitimize his lies and baseless claim that the elections were rigged.”Committee Chairman Benny Thompson noted. Elected officials returned to tensions within the ministry in the days leading up to January 6, 2021, when the defeated president faced an internal rebellion while trying to install a relative at the head of the establishment. “It was a brazen attempt to use the Department of Justice to advance the president’s personal political interests.”Mr. Thompson added.

Former Acting Deputy Secretary Richard Donoghue testified that he repeatedly told the former US president that his allegations of voter fraud were unfounded. Mr. Trump simply repeated that he won the presidential election. “Just say the election is rigged,” said the president, and leave the rest in my hands and those of the Republican-elected.Mr Donoghue said, based on his notes taken during a telephone conversation with Mr Trump and former Acting Secretary Jeffrey Rosen.

“Facts, Evidence and Laws”

And when he saw that the senior officials of the Ministry of Justice refused to bow down, the defeated president tried to install one of his relatives at the head of the institution. Jeffrey Clark, a mid-level civil servant who has espoused the president’s theories on fraudulent elections, had contradicted the department’s findings, which found no evidence of fraud that could have altered the outcome of the November vote.

Jeffrey Clark also had to intervene on behalf of the department to refuse to certify the election result in the key Georgia state, where Joe Biden won only 12,000 votes in advance. The Commission has learned that Mr. Clark has prepared a letter for Georgia’s elected officials, in which he claims that the Department has uncovered evidence of widespread fraud in Georgia, which is not true. But other Justice Department officials refused to sign the letter, and a White House legal adviser, Eric Hirschman, revealed that he told Jeff Clarke that sending the letter was ” a crime “.

Mr Trump told Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donoghue that he had been advised to fire them and appoint Jeffrey Clark as acting secretary. “I answered him (…) Mr. President, you need the right officials for you, but you have to understand that the Department of Justice operates on the basis of facts, evidence and laws. This will not change.”Mr. Donoghue said. The former deputy secretary also said he had warned Jeffrey Clark of his efforts to substantiate the fraud allegations “It was nothing less than an intervention by the Ministry justice in the presidential election results..

Threatening to resign

Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue, Stephen Engel, a senior department official, and Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, threatened to resign during a meeting with the president on Jan. 3, warning they would take the best with them. country. Donald Trump has dropped the designation for Jeffrey Clark, who refused to testify before the investigative committee.

The latter announced on Wednesday that two additional sessions would be held before work was halted on July 4 and resumed later, if necessary. After a year of investigation, the commission would like to present its conclusions before the end of the summer, which puts Donald Trump to the core coup attempt Which culminated in an attack by hundreds of his supporters on the Capitol building in Washington on January 6, 2021, in which elected officials confirmed Joe Biden’s victory.

Images of chaos in and around the Capitol spread around the world and rocked American democracy for a few hours.