Justice Department tells former Trump officials they can testify to efforts to overturn election

The Justice Department has told several former Trump administration officials that they can answer questions from Congress about efforts by President Donald Trump or DOJ officials to challenge, stop the count or overturn the results of the presidential election.

The letters are being sent to former officials who have been invited to testify or answer other questions from House and Senate oversight committees, according to the Department of Justice and Congressional officials.

The Senate committee, for example, informed witnesses that it was examining reports of an “alleged conspiracy between then-President Donald Trump and the Acting Deputy Attorney General of the Civil Division of the time, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, to use the Justice Department to advance Trump’s case. efforts to corrupt the results of the 2020 presidential election. ”

The Justice Department advises former officials that while it generally resists such congressional inquiries and even asserts executive privilege, it is different, according to one of the letters sent to Jeffrey Rosen, who was Acting Attorney General after William Barr resigned in late December.

“The extraordinary events in this matter constitute exceptional circumstances justifying an accommodation to Congress in this matter,” the letter told Rosen. He added that the White House agrees and that “President Biden has decided that it would not be appropriate to assert executive privilege” on this issue.

Similar letters from the Justice Department were sent to Richard Donoghue, who was acting deputy attorney general after Barr’s resignation, and to at least four other department officials, including Clark, Patrick Hovakimian, who was chief of staff. de Rosen, and former American lawyers Byung Jin. Pak and Bobby Christine.

Former officials said Hovakimian tried to block efforts to impeach Rosen for failing to launch investigations based on Trump’s election fraud allegations. Pak was the American attorney in Atlanta who resigned after Trump condemned Georgian authorities for failing to investigate his allegations of electoral fraud. Christine was an American lawyer in southern Georgia and was appointed by Trump to replace Pak on an interim basis after his resignation.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Welcomed the ministry’s letters of approval.

“The committee has been lobbying the DOJ for months for this exemption. Now that we have it, we will proceed to interviews with the relevant witnesses as soon as possible so that we can get to the bottom of this plot to enlist the DOJ in Donald Trump’s efforts to overthrow the 2020 election, ”a- he declared. said in a tweet.

House Oversight Committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., said the letters would help speed up the committee’s work.

“I expect rapid cooperation from these witnesses, and I pledge to shed light on the attempts of the previous administration to overthrow the Ministry of Justice and to annul a free and fair election,” he said. she declared.

The letter was sent by Bradley Weinsheimer, a career senior Justice Department official who was elevated to his post by Jeff Sessions, President Donald Trump’s first attorney general.

Many of these former officials were allowed to testify about the planning and the Department of Justice’s response to the Capitol Riot. “This authorization remains in effect,” the letter said.