77 days: Trump’s campaign to overturn the election



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Mr. Barr had resigned in December. But behind the back of Acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen, the President was plotting with Acting Department of Justice Civil Division chief Jeffrey Clark and a Pennsylvania congressman named Scott Perry to lobby Georgia to invalidate its results, investigate Dominion, and bring in a new Supreme Court case challenging the entire election. The intrigues were abruptly halted when Mr Rosen, who was reportedly sacked under the plan, assured the president that senior department officials would resign en masse.

This left Congress certification as the main event.

Mr. McConnell had been working for weeks to keep his members online. On a conference call in mid-December, he urged them to steer clear and protect the two Republican run-off candidates in Georgia from having to take a difficult stand.

When Mr. Hawley stepped forward, according to Republican senators, Mr. McConnell hoped to at least keep him isolated.

But Mr Cruz was working against the grain, trying to enlist others to sign a letter outlining his circular logic: because polls have shown that the Republicans’ “unprecedented allegations” of fraud had convinced two-thirds of them. party that Mr Biden had stolen the election, it was incumbent on Congress to at least delay certification and order a 10-day audit in “disputed states.” Mr Cruz, along with 10 other opponents, published the letter on the Saturday after the New Year.

Mr. McConnell knew that Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, one of the most conservative Republicans, had planned to speak publicly against the bet. Now the Majority Leader has called Mr. Cotton, according to a Republican familiar with the conversation, and urged him to do so as soon as possible. Mr. Cotton quickly complied.

It boiled down to a contest of wills within the Republican Party, and tens of thousands of Trump supporters converged on Washington to send a message to those who might challenge the president.

The rally had taken on a new branding, the March to Save America, and other groups joined, including the Republican Association of Attorneys General. Its political wing, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, promoted the event in a robocall that read: “We will walk to the Capitol building and ask Congress to stop the theft,” according to a recording obtained by the progressive investigative group Documented.

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