NYT: Mark Meadows, Trump’s Ex-Chief of Staff, Tried to Push DOJ to Investigate Voter Fraud Conspiracies

In the final weeks of Donald Trump‘s presidency, former chief of staff Mark Meadows pushed the Justice Department to investigate baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, a New York Times report found.

The report, based on portions of five emails that were sent by Meadows in late December and early January, showed the former chief of staff repeatedly requesting former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to look into debunked conspiracy theories about the election. One such claim was “a fantastical theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely tamper with voting machines in the United States,” the Times wrote.

Rosen did not agree to open an investigation in the emails, and he reportedly rejected Meadows’ requests.

In addition to the debunked “Italygate,” Meadows wrote to Rosen about unfounded allegations of widespread fraud in New Mexico and forwarded an email from Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell about possible fraud in Georgia. Two days later, Meadows and Mitchell were both on the call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during which Trump asked him to “find” the votes he needed to win the state.

Meadows’ emails, though no apparent action was taken because of them, show a break from the longstanding policy of White House staff not requesting particular investigations by the DOJ.

According to the Times, Rosen is in talks with the House Oversight Committee about meeting with investigators to discuss any pressure the DOJ faced to look into claims of election fraud, in addition to the department’s response to the Jan. 6 insurrection.