Donald Trump
Posted on by Randy Slovacek

Trump Considered Firing Acting AG, Using Justice Dept To Overturn Georgia Election Results

Donald Trump
Donald Trump (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr – CC License)

According to a new report, Jeffrey Clark, the acting head of the civil division at the end of the Trump administration, supported Donald Trump’s plans of undermining the 2020 presidential election and using the Department of Justice to pressure Georgia officials to change the state’s election results.

From the New York Times:

The department’s senior leaders were shocked when Mr. Clark’s machinations came to light. They have spent recent weeks debating how he came to betray Mr. Rosen, his biggest champion at the department, and what blend of ambition and conviction led him to reject the results of the election and embrace Mr. Trump’s claims, despite all evidence to the contrary, including inside the department itself.

The plot devised by Mr. Clark and Mr. Trump would have ousted Mr. Rosen and used the Justice Department to pressure lawmakers in Georgia to overturn the state’s election results. But Mr. Trump ultimately decided against firing Mr. Rosen after top department leaders pledged to resign en masse.

Senior Justice department officials, including Rosen, former Attorney General William Barr and former acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall repeatedly refused to file a case with the Supreme Court case since there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

The Times goes on to quote colleagues of Clark who were stunned to find out about the plan.

“The story kind of shocked me because this is not the Jeff that I know,” said Theodore H. Frank, a friend and former co-worker.

A Justice Department watchdog is now apparently investigating the matter.

Read the full report at the New York Times.