Former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows reportedly pushed the Justice Department during Trump’s final weeks in office, to investigate groundless conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election.
The New York Times reported Saturday that it had reviewed five recently recovered emails sent at the end of December and the beginning of January, that involved requests from Meadows to then acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen. The emails asked Rosen to examine outlandish claims that supported Trump’s big election lie.
The correspondence from Meadows, which came to light through a Senate Judiciary Committee investigation, reveal an even more desperate attempt than previously known by Trump and his allies to validate baffling and implausible theories about the election before leaving office.
Among the mythology seized upon in the request for further inquiry was a theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely switch votes for Trump to votes for President Joe Biden, the Times said.
Meadows also pushed for the DOJ’s investigation of debunked claims that anomalies with signature matches in Georgia’s Fulton County could toss a win to Trump in the state. Meadows also reportedly sent Rosen a list of allegations of possible election wrongdoing in New Mexico.
According to the Times, none of the emails showed Rosen agreeing to launch an examination of the claims put forward by Meadows. Former officials and people close to him also told the Times that Rosen had not opened those investigations.
Meadows’ efforts to undermine the 2020 presidential election results have been well-documented.
He was also involved in Trump’s now infamous phone call pressing Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes to overturn Biden’s win in the state.
In a statement, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, (D-IL) said his committee would continue to demand evidence in its probe into whether the DOJ had played a part in efforts to overturn Trump’s election loss.
“This new evidence underscores the depths of the White House’s efforts to co-opt the department and influence the electoral vote certification,” Durbin said in the statement. “I will demand all evidence of Trump’s efforts to weaponize the Justice Department in his election subversion scheme.”
