An official of the US Department of Justice revealed that former President Donald Trump wanted to remove former US Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and replace him with Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ lawyer that was loyal to Trump and would have tried to help him overturn the result of the US presidential election, CNBC reports.
According to reports, Trump planned to have Clark support his evidence-free allegations of voter fraud and pressure electoral officials in Georgia to overturn the outcome of the election to favor him. Rosen who refused to give in to Trump’s pressure would have been removed or pressured to resign and Clark, who was the head of the DOJ’s civil division, would have been installed as the new US Attorney General.
The former president’s plans were stopped by officials of the DoJ who unanimously agreed to resign from their positions if the former president had proceeded with the plans. According to reports, the agreement was made during a conference call between the officials of the department.
The Justice Department official that revealed the alleged plans stated that Rosen’s refusal to appoint a special committee to look into Trump’s baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud during the election had warranted the plan to remove him. Trump had also urged Rosen to investigate Dominion Voting Services, the company that had provided machines used for voting in 28 US states, including most of the battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia.
In December, Trump mandated election investigators in Georgia to “find the fraud” in an ongoing investigation into alleged ballot fraud in Georgia’s Cobb County, after state officials had stated that there was nothing of the sort in the state. Trump also wanted the state’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to manufacture votes that could overturn the election in his favor, NY Times reports.
In response to the report, Clark told reporters that he was not involved in any plan to remove Rosen from office nor had he wanted to recommend plans based on inaccurate comments that people were making on social media.
Chuck Schumer, US Senate Majority Leader called for an investigation into the former president’s aborted plan to install a loyalist as the US attorney general just to change the results of the election. Schumer wrote in a Saturday tweet that such action is tantamount to wanting to subvert the will of the people on Trump’s part.
The House of Representatives charged Trump with planning to incite an insurrection against the US government on January 8, after he sent his supporters to the US Capitol on January 6, causing a riot that directly led to the death of 5 people. On February 8, Trump’s Senate impeachment trial is set to start, to make him accountable for his role in inciting the crowd.
Source: cnbc.com
