President Donald J. Trump stops to speak to reporters as he boards Marine One and departs from the South Lawn at the White House.
The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump had planned earlier this month to oust Jeffrey Rosen as acting attorney general and replace him with a Justice Department attorney who would support his efforts to reverse the presidential election results, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The plan would have replaced Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, the attorney who ran the Department of Justice’s civil division. Clark would then have backed Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud and put pressure on Georgia state officials to change the election result.
A Justice Department official familiar with the matter confirmed the Times’ report of Trump’s efforts to NBC News.
Trump’s plan ultimately failed to materialize after Justice Department officials agreed during a conference call that they would resign if Rosen was fired, the Times said.
Trump had asked Rosen to appoint special advisors to investigate his allegations of widespread electoral fraud as well as the Dominion voting machine company, but Rosen declined.
Trump attempted to pressure Georgia’s top polling officer to “find the scam” in December when investigating suspected election fraud in Cobb County. Allegations that state officials believed to be unfounded. Trump also called on Georgian Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes to postpone the election in his favor.
In a statement to the Times, Clark categorically denied that he had devised a plan to oust Rosen or give recommendations for action based on factual inaccuracies found on the Internet.
The House has accused Trump of instigating an anti-government riot on Jan. 6 after deadly unrest in the Capitol. His impeachment proceedings against the Senate are due to begin in the week of February 8th.
Read the full Times report here
