Richard Donoghue, a senior DOJ official under the Trump administration gave very explicit and minute testimony to the January 6 Select Committee of all the efforts Trump tried to overthrow the 2020 election, including trying to make them accomplices in his criminality.
The DOJ investigated many of the false voter fraud lies pushed by Rudy Giuliani and Trump and debunked every one of them beyond all doubt.
One key part of Trump's plans was to replace Acting Attorney General Rosen with Jeffrey Clarke, an environmentalist lawyer, who said he would back up all of Trump's preposterous claims.
Donoghue took meticulous notes when talking with Trump about his concerns and the hearing provided them for us.
Then came the money shot.
"Let's take a look at another one of your notes. You also noted that Mr. Rosen said to me. Trump, quote, 'DOJ can't and won't snap its fingers and change the outcome of the election.' How did the president respond to that, sir?"
"He responded very quickly and said, essentially, 'That's not what I'm asking you to do.'" Donoghue replied. "What I'm asking you to do is say [the election] was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican Congressmen."
Wow, just wow.
Kinzinger asked again, "So let's now put up the notes where you quote the president. As you're speaking to that, he said the president said 'Just say the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen' so, Mr. Donoghue, that's a direct quote from President Trump, correct?"
Donoghue replied, "That's an exact quote from the President, yes."
Forget about evidence, truth, or honesty. Trump wanted the DOJ to tell the American people that the entire 2020 election was corrupt. Even after the DOJ investigated many of the false claims he was being fed with and found there was no voter fraud that made him lose the election.
Please get the handcuffs out as soon as possible.
