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FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP TRIED TO MANIPULATE THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INTO OVERTURNING THE 2020 ELECTION 

The following is a summary of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Preliminary Report on its investigation into former President Donald Trump's actions surrounding the 2020 Presidential Election. 

SUMMARY

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary is investigating Trump’s efforts to pressure the DOJ into abetting his election subversion scheme. While the investigation is not complete, preliminary findings include:

 

  • President Trump repeatedly asked DOJ leadership to endorse his false claims that the election was stolen and to assist his efforts to overturn the election results.

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  • White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows asked Acting Attorney General Rosen to initiate election fraud investigations on multiple occasions, violating long standing restrictions on White House-DOJ communications.

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  • Jeffrey Bossert Clark, an Assistant Attorney General appointed by Trump, pushed Rosen to assist Trump’s election subversion scheme. 

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  • Trump allies with links to the “Stop the Steal” movement and the January 6 insurrection participated in the pressure campaign against the DOJ. 

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  • Trump forced the resignation of U.S. Attorney Byung Jin (“BJay”) Pak for not doing enough to investigate false claims of election fraud in Georgia. Trump then went outside the line of succession when naming an Acting U.S. Attorney, bypassing First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine and instead appointed Bobby Christine because he believed Christine would “do something” about his election fraud claims.

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  • By pursuing false claims of election fraud before votes were certified, the DOJ deviated from longstanding practice meant to avoid inserting the DOJ itself into politics.

 

The Committee’s investigation has found that Trump’s manipulation of the DOJ to lay the groundwork for the “Big Lie” began many months before the 2020 Election. His interference with the DOJ’s operations was compounded by publicly pressuring other leading officials like Vice President Mike Pence to participate in election engineering. 

 

Ultimately, former President Donald Trump’s actions to subvert the natural succession of power created a disinformation network that incited about 1,000 Americans to storm the nation’s Capitol Building during the January 6th Insurrection. 

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