Senate Drops Report On Trump’s Use Of DOJ To Stay In Power

October 7, 2021
Donald Trump, Jeffrey Clark, Jeffrey Rosen
(TPM Illustration/Getty Images)
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October 7, 2021

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats issued a report on Thursday detailing former President Trump’s efforts to use the Justice Department as a weapon in his bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

It delves into some of the starkest examples of corruption that took place in the run-up to the insurrection, as Trump flailed for ways to stay in power.

Among other things, the report documents a Jan. 3 meeting during which senior DOJ leaders and then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone threatened to resign if Trump went through with a plan to install former assistant attorney general Jeffrey Bossert Clark as acting attorney general.

We’re going through the report line-by-line and will be posting updates below. Read our initial write-up of the report here.

Some Key Takeaways:

  • The report zeroes in on the Jan. 3 Oval Office meeting with DOJ bigwigs.
  • Jeff Clark spearheaded the campaign to have the DOJ declare the election corrupt.
  • DOJ leadership threatened to resign en masse if Trump installed Clark as acting attorney general.
  • White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and his deputy Patrick Philbin threatened to resign as well.
  • The panel confirmed that Trump wanted to fire U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia BJay Pak because he believed the prosecutor was a "never-Trumper," sparking Pak's forced resignation.
  • Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) played a key role in pressing a DOJ official to participate in the Big Lie.

Read the report here:

More Less

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats issued a report on Thursday detailing former President Trump’s efforts to use the Justice Department as a weapon in his bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

It delves into some of the starkest examples of corruption that took place in the run-up to the insurrection, as Trump flailed for ways to stay in power.

Among other things, the report documents a Jan. 3 meeting during which senior DOJ leaders and then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone threatened to resign if Trump went through with a plan to install former assistant attorney general Jeffrey Bossert Clark as acting attorney general.

We’re going through the report line-by-line and will be posting updates below. Read our initial write-up of the report here.

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