On Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) requested that the Inspector General of the Department of Justice investigate an alleged plan by former President Trump and a DOJ lawyer to remove the incumbent Attorney General and replace him with someone else willing to investigate unfounded claims of election fraud.
Driving the news: The New York Times reported Friday for the first time that attorney Jeffrey Clark allegedly devised “ways to question election results and bolster Mr. Trump’s ongoing legal battles and pressure on Georgia politicians.” Mr. [Jeffrey] Rosen had rejected the president’s pleas to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire him and replace him with Mr. Clark. ”
- Trump finally decided not to fire Rosen after DOJ officials unanimously decided they would resign if the then president followed the plan, The Times reported. Acting Attorney General and Clark also defended their case at a strange White House meeting that two officials compared to an episode of Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice.”
Clark denied “categorically” who drew up a plan to oust Rosen, according to the Times and the Washington Post, which also reported on the alleged plan.
- “I also did not make recommendations for action based on inaccuracies in fact collected from the Internet,” Clark noted, according to the post.
- “It simply came to our notice then[s]. “There was a sincere discussion about the options and pros and cons with the president. It is unfortunate that those who were part of a privileged legal conversation commented publicly on these internal deliberations, while distorting any discussion … “The observance of legal privileges, which I will comply with, even if others do not, will prevent me from disclosing details about the conversation.”
- The DOJ, Rosen and Trump declined to comment to the Times. An adviser told the newspaper that the judicial system should investigate “the rampant electoral fraud that has plagued our system for years.”
What it says: “An unconscious leader that a Trump Justice Department leader would conspire to subvert the will of the people, ”Schumer tweeted Saturday.
- “The inspector general of the justice department should now start an investigation into this attempted sedition,” he added.
- “And the Senate will move forward with Trump’s impeachment trial,” scheduled for the week of Feb. 8.