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CousinIT

(9,256 posts)
Fri Jan 22, 2021, 10:50 PM Jan 2021

Trump & Justice Dept. Lawyer Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General to overturn GA elec result

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/politics/jeffrey-clark-trump-justice-department-election.html

Rachel had this on her show tonight after Fauci, If you missed it head over to MSNBC to see if you can find the segment. I expect we'll be seeing a LOT more of this shit coming out about what Trump did to overturn the 2020 election and stay in office. Impeachment managers MUST make all this part of their prosecutorial case against Trump in the senate.

Trying to find another avenue to push his baseless election claims, Donald Trump considered installing a loyalist, and had the men make their cases to him.

By Katie Benner
Jan. 22, 2021
Updated 8:50 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.

The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.

The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed?

The answer was unanimous. They would resign.

Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. Trump to keep Mr. Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Mr. Trump’s decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis.

The previously unknown chapter was the culmination of the president’s long-running effort to batter the Justice Department into advancing his personal agenda. He also pressed Mr. Rosen to appoint special counsels, including one who would look into Dominion Voting Systems, a maker of election equipment that Mr. Trump’s allies had falsely said was working with Venezuela to flip votes from Mr. Trump to Joseph R. Biden Jr.
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Takket

(21,620 posts)
3. how did they think DOJ could force the Georgia legislature to overturn the results?
Fri Jan 22, 2021, 10:57 PM
Jan 2021

I don't even understand the logistics of that.......... DOJ has no ability or power to instruct a state legislature to do something against its will and/or in violation of the state's laws.

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,829 posts)
4. They couldn't; it would get shot down in court.
Fri Jan 22, 2021, 11:00 PM
Jan 2021

What's so appalling is that a senior attorney in the DoJ seems to have been willing to even try it.

But that wasn't even the point. It was exactly the same as what Trump tried to do in Ukraine: make it appear that there was an investigation, even if there wasn't one.

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,829 posts)
13. He's the head of the civil division so I'm guessing he's an appointee
Fri Jan 22, 2021, 11:29 PM
Jan 2021

rather than a career employee but I'm not sure. If the former, he probably won't be working there much longer.

trueblue2007

(17,237 posts)
11. throw these 1000 bad GOPigs in jail. i mean with the news ... 1000 bad Gops are turning up
Fri Jan 22, 2021, 11:16 PM
Jan 2021

every news segment.... there are MORE bad GOPs getting into trouble !!!! They are infecting each other in badness

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
12. Fiona Hill: "Yes, It Was a Coup Attempt. Here's Why." More evidence.
Fri Jan 22, 2021, 11:28 PM
Jan 2021
What Trump tried is called a “self-coup,” and he did it in slow motion and in plain sight.

... Trump disguised what he was doing by operating in plain sight, talking openly about his intent. He normalized his actions so people would accept them. I’ve been studying authoritarian regimes for three decades, and I know the signs of a coup when I see them. ...

There’s a standard coup “checklist” analysts use to evaluate coups, and we can use it to assess Trump’s moves to prevent the peaceful transfer of executive power. To successfully usurp or hold power, you need to control the

* military and paramilitary units,
* communications,
* judiciary,
* government institutions, and the
* legislature; and
* mobilize popular support.

Let’s see how well this applies to what Trump has done. ...

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/11/capitol-riot-self-coup-trump-fiona-hill-457549

Irish_Dem

(47,324 posts)
15. There is going to be a tsunami of these kind of stories
Fri Jan 22, 2021, 11:40 PM
Jan 2021

now that Trump is gone.

What we saw Trump do out in the open is just the tip of the iceberg.

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