Old President Trump
Donald TrumpNYT: Deputy Perry played a role in Trump’s alleged plan to expel AG Arizona GOP censors leading state Republicans McCain, Flake and Ducey Biden and the UK Prime Minister discuss NATO, multilateralism during call MORE supposedly pressured the Department of Justice (DOJ) to take its proposal to overturn the results of the presidential election to the Supreme Court, but the effort came to a dead end after opposition from the agency’s leadership.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump tried to get the DOJ to file a lawsuit challenging the election result before leaving office last week, but several senior officials at the agency refused to present the case. These officials allegedly included then-acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen, former attorney general William Barr
Bill BarrBudowsky: Democracy won, Trump lost, President Biden took office Two-thirds say the election was fair: The Hill’s Morning Report poll – A tenure like no other MORE and former acting attorney general Jeffrey Wall.
The effort also met resistance from former White House adviser Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, former White House adviser, the Journal noted.
According to the newspaper, a document was written at a given time by a lawyer who worked outside the administration for the effort.
“He wanted us, the United States, to sue one or more of the states directly at the Supreme Court,” a former government official told the Journal. The official added that “the pressure got really intense” after the Supreme Court rejected a Texas proposal in early December that sought to nullify President Biden’s electoral victory.
The Journal reported that Trump considered expelling Rosen and replacing him with Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ lawyer, after the effort failed.
The Journal report came a day after The New York Times also reported that Trump planned to fire Rosen and replace him with Clark in efforts to overturn the election results.
However, both newspapers reported that the effort failed after a series of senior department officials threatened to resign if Trump went ahead with the plan.
In a statement last week to the Times, which spoke to four unnamed former Trump administration officials for its coverage, Clark declined the report.
“Senior Justice Department attorneys often provide legal advice to the White House as part of our obligations,” he told the newspaper. “All of my official communications were consistent with the law.”
He also pointed to his role last month as the main signer of a DOJ request for a federal court to reject a lawsuit aimed at putting pressure on then Vice President Pence to overturn the election result while Congress certifies the Electoral College vote.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill at the time.