A new report gives the clearest account yet of the extent to which former President Donald Trump attempted to subvert the Justice Department to overthrow a legitimate election. The report makes clear that a handful of top administration officials heroically averted this attempted coup by threatening mass resignations if Trump carried out his scheme. As more and more of these details emerge, Republicans who continue to support Trump’s false and toxic claims of electoral victory should think hard about how history will view him — and them.
The interim report by the Senate Judiciary Committee shows how Trump’s Jan. 6 incitement of a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol was only his most publicly visible attempt to overturn an election he clearly lost. In the days prior, Trump was maneuvering behind the scenes, trying to weaponize his Justice Department to validate his already-disproven claims of election fraud.
Among the abuses Trump wanted his underlings to commit was to send a letter to Georgia officials falsely claiming to have identified “significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election” in hopes of getting the results overturned. The refusal of top officials to carry out that and other plots infuriated Trump. During a Jan. 2 meeting, according to testimony, Trump lashed out at his acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, telling him: “One thing we know is you, Rosen, aren’t going to do anything to overturn the election.”
