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The letter incorrectly said that the Justice Department had identified “significant concerns that could impact the outcome of elections in several states, including the state of Georgia.”
According to internal Justice Department emails also obtained by ABC News, the letter was circulated by Jeffrey Clark, a senior department official who was working with the then president to involve the department more directly in the Crusade of Trump’s election reversal. Clark was Acting Attorney General of the Civil Division at the time.
He sent the draft letter, according to the emails, to Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue. Although the letter was addressed to Georgia, Clark’s email indicated that he wanted to send similar versions to “every state concerned.”
“I got him signed by the three of us. I think we should get him out as soon as possible,” Clark told Rosen and Donoghue, according to emails obtained by ABC News.
“I see no valid downside to sending the letter,” Clark said.
Donoghue, in his email response obtained by ABC News, vehemently expressed his opposition to sending the letter. He noted that former Attorney General William Barr had publicly announced that the department had found no evidence of massive voter fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election. Donoghue said he was not aware of any development since Barr’s assessment that would have changed that conclusion. Additionally, Donoghue noted that it was not standard DOJ practice to inform non-law enforcement actors of the progress of the investigation, such as Clark’s draft letter to the Georgian officials promised the department would.
Donoghue told Clark in the email that there was “no way” he would sign the draft letter “or anything like that from a distance.” Donoghue added that, from where he stood, “it’s not even within the realm of possibility.”
On January 2, Rosen then weighed in to clarify that he was “not ready to sign such a letter,” according to the email chain.
The internal documents were turned over by the department to the House Oversight Committee, ABC News said, as the committee investigates Trump’s attempts to overturn the election. The committee made no comment when contacted by CNN, and the Justice Department also declined to comment. Rosen and Donoghue also made no comment.
CNN’s Manu Raju and Evan Perez contributed to this report.
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