Trump and Justice Department lawyer say they conspired to dismantle Acting AG



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WASHINGTON – Top Justice Department officials listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had worked out a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as Acting Attorney General and exercise the Ministry’s forcible power. Georgia state lawmakers must overrule the presidential election results.

The modest lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had devised ways to cast doubt on the election results and to reinforce Mr Trump’s ongoing legal battles and pressure on Georgian politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the President’s pleas to carry out these plans, Mr. Trump was on the verge of deciding whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.

Ministry officials, gathered in a conference call, then asked themselves: what will you do if Mr. Rosen is fired?

The answer was unanimous. They would resign.

Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. Trump to keep Mr. Rosen in place, calculating that a fury over massive resignations atop the Justice Department would overshadow any attention to his baseless accusations of electoral fraud. Mr Trump’s decision came only after Mr Rosen and Mr Clark told him about their competing affairs in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared to an episode of the reality show of Mr. Trump’s “The Apprentice”, although that may cause a constitutional crisis.

The hitherto unknown chapter was the culmination of the president’s long-standing efforts to get the Justice Department to push his personal agenda forward. He also urged Rosen to appoint special advisers, including one who would look into the voting systems of the Dominion, an electoral equipment maker that Trump allies had falsely said was working with Venezuela to transfer the votes. votes from Mr. Trump to Joseph R. Biden Jr.

This account of the last days of the department under Mr. Trump’s leadership is based on interviews with four former Trump administration officials who asked not to be appointed for fear of reprisal.

Mr Clark said that account contained inaccuracies but did not elaborate, adding that he could not discuss any conversations with Mr Trump or the attorneys at the Department of Justice. “Senior Justice Department lawyers provide legal advice to the White House as part of our duties,” he said. “All my official communications were in accordance with the law.”

Mr Clark also noted that he was the lead signatory on a Justice Department request last month asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to overturn election results.

Mr. Trump declined to comment. One adviser said that Mr. Trump has consistently maintained that the justice system should investigate “the rampant electoral fraud that has plagued our system for years.”

The advisor added that “any statement to the contrary is false and motivated by those who wish to keep the system down.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice declined to comment, as did Mr. Rosen.

When Mr. Trump said on December 14 that Attorney General William P. Barr was leaving the department, some officials thought he might give Rosen a brief reprieve before pressing him for electoral fraud. After all, Mr. Barr would be here for another week.

Instead, Mr. Trump summoned Mr. Rosen to the Oval Office the next day. He wanted the Justice Department to file legal briefs supporting lawsuits by his allies seeking to overturn his electoral defeat. And he urged Mr. Rosen to appoint special advisers to investigate not only the unsubstantiated accusations of widespread voter fraud, but also Dominion, the voting machine company.

(Dominion sued pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who inserted the charges in four federal election irregularities lawsuits that were all dismissed.)

Mr. Rosen refused. He maintained that he would make decisions based on the facts and the law, and he reiterated what Mr Barr had privately said to Mr Trump: The ministry had investigated voting irregularities and found no evidence of widespread fraud.

But Mr. Trump continued to pressure Mr. Rosen after the meeting – by phone and in person. He has repeatedly said he does not understand why the Justice Department has failed to find evidence to support the election conspiracy theories that some of his personal lawyers espoused. He said the ministry was not fighting hard enough for him.

As Mr. Rosen and Deputy Attorney General Richard P. Donoghue backed down, they were unaware that Mr. Clark had been introduced to Mr. Trump by a Pennsylvania politician and told the president he was d agree that the fraud had affected the election. results.

Mr Trump quickly hugged Mr Clark, who had been appointed acting head of the civilian division in September and was also head of the department’s environmental and natural resources division.

As December wore on, Mr. Clark mentioned to Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donoghue that he had spent a lot of time reading on the internet – a comment that alarmed them as they deduced he believed to the baseless conspiracy theory Mr. Trump won. the election. Mr Clark also told them he wanted the ministry to hold a press conference announcing it was investigating serious allegations of electoral fraud. Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donoghue rejected the proposal.

As Mr. Trump increasingly focused on Georgia, a state he narrowly lost to Mr. Biden, he complained to Justice Department officials that U.S. attorney in Atlanta Byung J.Pak, was not trying to find evidence of false election statements pushed by Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and others. Mr Donoghue warned Mr Pak that the president was now obsessed with his office and it might not be tenable for him to continue leading it, according to two people familiar with the conversation.

That conversation, and Mr. Trump’s efforts to pressure Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State to “find” him votes, forced Mr. Pak to resign abruptly this month.

Mr. Clark also focused on Georgia. He wrote a letter he wanted Mr Rosen to send to lawmakers in the state of Georgia, incorrectly claiming the Justice Department is investigating allegations of electoral fraud in their state and that they should act to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory there.

Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donoghue again rejected Mr. Clark’s proposal.

On New Year’s Eve, the trio gathered to discuss Mr Clark’s refusal to draw the ministry’s conclusion that the election results were valid. Mr. Donoghue categorically told Mr. Clark that what he was doing was wrong. The next day, Mr Clark told Mr Rosen – who had mentored him while they worked together at the Kirkland & Ellis law firm – that he would discuss his strategy with the president early next week. , just before Congress is ready to certify Mr. Biden’s electoral victory.

Unbeknownst to the Acting Attorney General, Mr. Clark’s schedule has increased. He met with Mr Trump over the weekend and then informed Mr Rosen at noon Sunday that the president intended to replace him with Mr Clark, who could then try to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the electoral college. He said Mr. Rosen could remain his Deputy Attorney General, leaving Mr. Rosen speechless.

Refusing to step down without a fight, Mr Rosen said he needed to hear from Mr Trump directly and worked with White House attorney Pat A. Cipollone to call a meeting early in the evening .

Even as Mr Clark’s statement sank, mind-blowing news broke in Georgia: State officials recorded an hour-long call, published by the Washington Post, in which Mr Trump told them. pressured them to produce enough votes to declare him the winner. As the fallout from the recording ricocheted through Washington, the president’s desperate attempt to change the outcome in Georgia was highlighted.

Mr Rosen and Mr Donoghue continued to move forward, informing Steven Engel, the head of the Department of Justice’s legal counsel’s office, of Mr Clark’s latest move. Mr Donoghue called a late afternoon appeal with other senior ministry officials, exposing Mr Clark’s efforts to replace Mr Rosen.

Mr Rosen planned to visit the White House soon to discuss his fate, Mr Donoghue told the group. If Mr. Rosen were to be fired, they would all agree to quit en masse. For some, the plan hinted at the so-called Saturday night massacre of the Nixon era, where Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and his deputy resigned rather than carry out the president’s order to fire the special prosecutor who was investigating on him.

The Clark plan, officials concluded, would seriously undermine the ministry, the government and the rule of law. For hours, they sent an anxious message and called each other while awaiting Mr. Rosen’s fate.

At around 6 p.m., Mr. Rosen, Mr. Donoghue and Mr. Clark met in the White House with Mr. Trump, Mr. Cipollone, his deputy Patrick Philbin and other lawyers. Mr. Trump has asked Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark to present their arguments to him.

Mr Cipollone advised the president not to fire Mr Rosen and he reiterated, as he had done for days, that he was not recommending sending the letter to Georgian lawmakers. Mr. Engel informed Mr. Trump that he and other senior ministry officials would resign if he fired Mr. Rosen, leaving Mr. Clark alone in the ministry.

Mr Trump seemed somewhat swayed by the idea that Mr Rosen’s dismissal would not only trigger chaos in the Justice Department but also congressional inquiries and possibly recriminations from other Republicans and deflect attention for its efforts to overturn the election results.

After nearly three hours, Mr. Trump finally decided Mr. Clark’s plan would fail and he allowed Mr. Rosen to stay.

Mr. Rosen and his assistants concluded that they had weathered the turmoil. Once Congress certified Mr. Biden’s victory, there wouldn’t be much to do before leaving with Mr. Trump in two weeks.

They began to expire a few days later as certification from the Electoral College on Capitol Hill began. And then they received a note: The building had been violated.

Maggie Haberman contributed reporting from New York.

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