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The lawsuit, modeled after the Texas lawsuit, reportedly urged the Supreme Court to declare that Electoral College votes from six key states Trump lost “cannot be counted” due to baseless fraud allegations, and that judges order a “special election” for president to be held in those states.
Rosen did not find Olsen’s arguments convincing. He had previously been in contact with the Texas attorney, as shown in emails previously posted by House investigators, and challenged him to find Supreme Court precedents to support his case.
So when Trump filed the lawsuit on their appeal, the acting attorney general was ready. The complaint had circulated sufficiently to senior levels of government for the Ministry’s Office of the Legal Adviser to examine it and set out the legal reasons why it had not been initiated. Rosen made some of those arguments to the president, including arguments related to standing and original jurisdiction, and he told congressional investigators that he persuaded the outgoing president to side with his side. .
The Justice Department did not sign the complaint. And Rosen repeatedly told the president what he didn’t want to hear. But despite this, Trump did not fire Rosen.
Direct conversations between presidents and senior law enforcement officials on pressing legal matters are rare, let alone on a subject as sensitive as the potential rejection of votes from millions of Americans. But Trump, from his attempts to lead former FBI chief James Comey in the Russia investigation to his public battles with Jeff Sessions and William Barr, had long ignored such standards.
Notes from a Justice Department official released by the House Oversight Committee showed Trump urged them to label the election “corrupt.” They didn’t have to.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, which had requested a voluntary interview with Rosen, is expected to continue its investigation this week into the Trump-era DOJ. President Dick Durbin told reporters this week that the panel will soon interview Byung Jin Pak, the former U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia who resigned in early January amid controversy over Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential ballot in the state. Pak will meet with the committee on Wednesday morning, according to a source familiar with his plans.
Rosen testified before the Senate panel for more than seven hours last Saturday, giving a story Durbin called “riveting.” The Illinois Democrat said he also wants to hear from former Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Clark as the panel continues its investigation.
Trump had weighed the ousting of Rosen in favor of Clark, whom his allies saw as more receptive to his false election claims. It’s unclear whether Clark will testify before the Judiciary Committee, and his even division between Republicans and Democrats means he might not be able to issue a subpoena if there is a deadlock.
The investigation by House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney was abruptly halted in early August and turned over to the select committee tasked with investigating the January 6 insurgency.
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