Former Attorney General Identifies ‘Smoking Gun’ For Criminally Charging Trump

Richard Donoghue, a former Justice Department official, testified Thursday before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and shared notes he had taken in meetings with then-President Donald Trump.

The notes, which were previously documented in a report by the Senate Judiciary Committee, included one quoting Trump telling officials “just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”

Former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served in the Obama administration, weighed in on Twitter regarding Donoghue’s note:

“This is the smoking gun,” Holder said. “Coupled with other testimony demonstrates both Trump’s substantive involvement and corrupt intent, requisite state of mind.”

Trump – “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen”. This is the smoking gun. Coupled with other testimony demonstrates both Trump’s substantive involvement and corrupt intent, requisite state of mind.

— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) June 23, 2022

Holder’s comment is particularly notable as current Attorney General Merrick Garland is under scrutiny, including from many Democrats, for not moving faster on criminal indictments related to Jan. 6 and Trump-backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Donoghue shared other notes with the committee including one in which Trump told DOJ officials they were “obligated to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election.”

Donoghue explained before the committee why he started taking notes. He noted that Trump would regularly come up with new allegations of voter fraud and that writing them down became the only way to keep everything straight.

“I simply reached out and grabbed a notepad off my wife’s nightstand and I started writing it down,” recalled Donoghue of a phone conversation he had with Trump.

“That had to do with an allegation that more than 200,000 votes were certified in the state of Pennsylvania that were not cast. Sometimes, the president would say it was 205, 250, but I hadn’t heard this before. I wanted to get the allegation down clearly so we could look into it if appropriate. That is why I started taking notes. As a conversation continued, I would continue to take notes.”

Watch the full clip above via CNN