He also discovered that Mr. Clark had had unauthorized talks with Mr. Trump in an attempt to get the Justice Department to publicly question President Biden’s victory, especially in battlefield states that Mr. Trump was fixated on, like Georgia. Mr Clark penned a letter that he asked Mr Rosen to send to Georgia state lawmakers, falsely claiming that they were voiding Mr Biden’s victory because the Department of Justice was investigating allegations of electoral fraud in the state.
Such a letter would effectively undermine the efforts of Mr Clark’s colleagues to prevent the White House from overturning the election results, and Mr Rosen and Senior Vice President Richard P. Donoghue opposed the proposal.
Connecticut Democrat Senator Richard Blumenthal said Mr. Rosen had discussed previously reported episodes, including his interactions with Mr. Clark, with the Senate Judiciary Committee. He called Mr Rosen’s report “dramatic evidence of how Trump intended to overthrow the election”.
Trump’s offer to undermine the election
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Pressure on civil servants to “find votes”. With the president continuing to refuse to admit the election, his most loyal supporters declared January 6th, when Congress convened to formalize Mr Biden’s election victory, as a day of reckoning. That day, Mr. Trump delivered an incendiary speech in front of thousands of his supporters, hours before a mob of loyalists forcibly stormed the Capitol.
Mr. Blumenthal was one of a handful of Senators, including Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina and Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, who attended most of Mr. Rosen’s more than six hours of testimony. Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and chairman of the committee; Charles E. Grassley, Republican from Iowa; Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota; Ben Sasse, Republican from Nebraska; and Mike Lee, Republican from Utah, attended portions of the interview.
Mr Blumenthal said Mr Rosen had presented new facts and evidence leading him to believe that the committee needed to answer “profound and important questions” about the role that individuals in Mr Trump’s community have played in efforts to bring about a peaceful transition of power, “what Trump tried intensely and in concert.”
As details of Mr. Clark’s actions emerge, it is unclear what, if any, consequences might threaten him. The Justice Department Inspector General could determine if Mr. Clark has crossed the line into potentially criminal behavior. In this case, the Inspector General could refer the matter to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.