Former Acting Attorney General Testifies About
Trump’s Efforts to Subvert Election
The testimony highlights the former president’s desire
to batter the Justice Department into advancing his personal agenda.
Jeffrey A. Rosen, the former acting attorney general,
has emerged as a key witness in investigations that focus on efforts to
undermine the election results.
Katie Benner
By Katie Benner
Aug. 7, 2021
WASHINGTON
— Jeffrey A. Rosen, who was acting attorney general during the Trump
administration, has told the Justice Department watchdog and congressional
investigators that one of his deputies tried to help former President Donald J.
Trump subvert the results of the 2020 election, according to a person familiar
with the interviews.
Mr. Rosen
had a two-hour meeting on Friday with the Justice Department’s office of the
inspector general and provided closed-door testimony to the Senate Judiciary
Committee on Saturday.
The
investigations were opened after a New York Times article that detailed efforts
by Jeffrey Clark, the acting head of the Justice Department’s civil division,
to push top leaders to falsely and publicly assert that continuing election
fraud investigations cast doubt on the Electoral College results. That prompted
Mr. Trump to consider ousting Mr. Rosen and installing Mr. Clark at the top of
the department to carry out that plan.
Mr. Trump
never fired Mr. Rosen, but the plot highlights the former president’s desire to
batter the Justice Department into advancing his personal agenda.
Mr. Clark,
who did not respond to requests for comment, said in January that all of his
official communications with the White House “were consistent with law,” and
that he had engaged in “a candid discussion of options and pros and cons with
the president.”
Mr. Rosen
did not respond to requests for comment. The inspector general’s spokesman
declined to comment.
Mr. Rosen
has emerged as a key witness in multiple investigations that focus on Mr.
Trump’s efforts to undermine the results of the election. He has publicly
stated that the Justice Department did not find enough fraud to affect the
outcome of the election.
On Friday
Mr. Rosen told investigators from the inspector general’s office about five
encounters with Mr. Clark, including one in late December during which his
deputy admitted to meeting with Mr. Trump and pledged that he would not do so
again, according to a person familiar with the interview.
Mr. Rosen
also described subsequent exchanges with Mr. Clark, who continued to press
colleagues to make statements about the election that they found to be untrue,
according to a person familiar with the interview.
He also
discovered that Mr. Clark had been engaging in unauthorized conversations with
Mr. Trump about ways to have the Justice Department publicly cast doubt on
President Biden’s victory, particularly in battleground states that Mr. Trump
was fixated on, like Georgia. Mr. Clark drafted a letter that he asked Mr.
Rosen to send to Georgia state legislators, wrongly asserting that they should
void Mr. Biden’s victory because the Justice Department was investigating
accusations of voter fraud in the state.
Such a
letter would effectively undermine efforts by Mr. Clark’s colleagues to prevent
the White House from overturning the election results, and Mr. Rosen and his
top deputy, Richard P. Donoghue, rejected the proposal.
Senator
Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said Mr. Rosen discussed
previously reported episodes, including his interactions with Mr. Clark, with
the Senate Judiciary Committee. He called Mr. Rosen’s account “dramatic
evidence of how intent Trump was in overthrowing the election.”
A
monthslong campaign. During his last days in office, President Donald J. Trump
and his allies undertook an increasingly urgent effort to undermine the
election results. That wide-ranging campaign included perpetuating false and
thoroughly debunked claims of election fraud as well as pressing government
officials for help.
Baseless
claims of voter fraud. Although Mr. Trump’s allegations of a stolen election
have died in the courts and election officials of both parties from every state
have said there is no evidence of fraud, Republicans across the country
continued to spread conspiracy theories. Those include 147 House Republicans
who voted against certifying the election.
Intervention
at the Justice Department. Rebuffed by ranking Republicans and cabinet
officials like Attorney General William P. Barr, who stepped down weeks before
his tenure was to end, Mr. Trump sought other avenues to peddle his unfounded
claims. In a bid to advance his personal agenda, Mr. Trump plotted to oust the
acting attorney general and pressed top officials to declare that the election
was corrupt. His chief of staff pushed the department to investigate an array
of outlandish and unfounded conspiracy theories that held that Mr. Trump had
been the victor.
Pressuring
state officials to 'find votes.' As the president continued to refuse to
concede the election, his most loyal backers proclaimed Jan. 6, when Congress
convened to formalize Mr. Biden's electoral victory, as a day of reckoning. On
that day, Mr. Trump delivered an incendiary speech to thousands of his
supporters hours before a mob of loyalists violently stormed the Capitol.
Mr.
Blumenthal was one of a handful of senators, including Thom Tillis, Republican
of North Carolina, and Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who sat
through most of Mr. Rosen’s more than six hours of testimony. Richard J.
Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and chairman of the committee; Charles E.
Grassley, Republican of Iowa; Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota; Ben Sasse,
Republican of Nebraska; and Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, attended parts of the
interview.
Mr.
Blumenthal said Mr. Rosen presented new facts and evidence that led him to
believe that the committee would need to answer “profound and important
questions” about the roles that individuals in Mr. Trump’s orbit played in the
effort to undermine the peaceful transition of power, “which is what Trump tried
to do, intently and concertedly.”
As details
of Mr. Clark’s actions emerge, it is unclear what, if any, consequences he
could face. The Justice Department’s inspector general could make a
determination about whether Mr. Clark crossed the line into potentially
criminal behavior. In that case, the inspector general could refer the matter
to federal prosecutors.
Mr. Rosen
has spent much of the year in discussions with the Justice Department over what
information he could provide to investigators, given that decision-making
conversations between administration officials are usually kept confidential.
Douglas A.
Collins, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, said last week that the former president would
not seek to bar former Justice Department officials from speaking with
investigators. But Mr. Collins said he might take some undisclosed legal action
if congressional investigators sought “privileged information.”
Mr. Rosen
quickly scheduled interviews with congressional investigators to get as much of
his version of events on the record before any players could ask the courts to
block the proceedings, according to two people familiar with those discussions
who are not authorized to speak about continuing investigations.
He also
reached out directly to Michael E. Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector
general, and pledged to cooperate with his investigation, according to a person
briefed on those talks.
Katie
Benner covers the Justice Department. She was part of a team that won a
Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for public service for reporting on workplace sexual
harassment issues. @ktbenner
A version
of this article appears in print on Aug. 8, 2021, Section A, Page 21 of the New
York edition with the headline: Ex-Official in Justice Dept. Says Deputy Tried
to Aid Trump. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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