Trump Pressured DOJ to Undermine Election Results: ‘Just Say the Election Was Corrupt and Leave the Rest to Me’

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Donald Trump pressured top Justice Department officials to undermine the results of the 2020 election, telling them to “just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me.”

The House Oversight and Reform Committee has obtained handwritten notes taken by Richard Donoghue, former acting deputy attorney general, during a December 27 call with Trump and then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.

“Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me,” Donoghue wrote, summarizing Trump’s instructions to DoJ officials. The notes additionally show that Trump suggested he might replace the agency’s leadership.

“Should be able to check on that quickly, but understand that the DOJ can’t and won’t snap it’s fingers and change the outcome of the election, doesn’t work that way,” Donoghue also wrote in his notes, referring to Trump’s claim that more ballots were cast in Pennsylvania than there are voters.

According to a statement from Oversight Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Donoghue’s account shows that the former president “directly instructed our nation’s top law enforcement agency to take steps to overturn a free and fair election in the final days of his presidency.”

Maloney further clarified that the House committee has started “to investigate the full extent of the former President’s corruption,” especially as he has yet to concede his loss to President Joe Biden.

The New York Times additionally reported that “During the call, Mr. Trump also told the Justice Department officials to ‘figure out what to do’ with Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son. ‘People will criticize the D.O.J. if he’s not investigated for real,’ he told them, violating longstanding guidelines against the White House interfering in criminal investigations or other law enforcement actions.”