Attorney Jeffrey Clark informs acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen that Donald Trump is firing him. Trump plans to replace Rosen with Clark, who has been secretly meeting with Trump for at least two weeks. By the end of the day, Rosen hatches a plan to change Trump’s mind…
Immediately after A.G. William Barr resigned in December, Trump pressured Rosen to help him use the DOJ to support his team’s lawsuits and launch investigations into voter fraud. Rosen refused, citing the Justice Department’s findings that there wasn’t significant fraud in the election.
As Mr. Rosen and the deputy attorney general, Richard P. Donoghue, pushed back, they were unaware that Mr. Clark had been introduced to Mr. Trump by a Pennsylvania politician and had told the president that he agreed that fraud had affected the election results.
The New York Times
After finding out he’s being fired, Rosen and Donoghue contact other top officials in the DOJ. All of them agree that, if Trump goes through with this plan, they will immediately resign.
The Clark plan, the officials concluded, would seriously harm the department, the government and the rule of law. For hours, they anxiously messaged and called one another as they awaited Mr. Rosen’s fate.
The New York Times
Around 6 p.m., Rosen and Donoghue meet with Trump, Clark, and White House lawyers. Rosen, Donoghue, and White House counsel Pat Cipollone all advise Trump not to move forward with the Clark plan. Steven Engel, the head of the Justice Department’s office of legal counsel, tells Trump he will resign immediately and everyone else will follow.
Clark also makes his case to the president. Two sources compare the meeting to an episode of The Apprentice.
After almost three hours of discussion, Trump decides that chaos at the Justice Department and possible investigations would pull attention away from his election fraud claims. He doesn’t fire Jeffrey Rosen.
Source
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/politics/jeffrey-clark-trump-justice-department-election.html
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