On January 3, 2021 DOJ Acting and Deputy AGs prevented Trump’s misuse of Department of Justice for overturning Biden’s 2020 election using debunked conspiracy theories.
The insurrection at the Capitol happened just a few days later on January 6th 2021.
IN THE BEGINNING. . .
Voters should have known better than to elect Trump in a fair election in 2016. After all, he had the reputation of arrogance, self-centered narcissism, and appeared to be more of a user than a server. He had no experience as political office holder and no military service. His loyalties did not extend very far beyond himself.
U.S. Senator Mitt Romney, however, has a long record as an ethical businessman, family man, and politician. And on March 3, 2016 during Trump’s primary run, Romney methodically called him out as a “con man”, a “fake” and a “phony.” Romney, a republican, said Trump should not be the GOP nominee. Find Romney’s speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iefXdC794
I listened to that speech. Everything Romney said sounded credible at the time and has never been proved wrong or biased. Trump's unsuitability for President has always been on public display.
During the televised Republican primary debates, I found it hard to stomach Trump’s disrespectful behavior towards his fellow debaters. It was difficult to understand why he was gaining popularity throughout the debates. It was hard to believe he was winning the state primaries. He won the Republican nomination.
Romney warned of damage to our country. And, two years after Trump was voted out of office, he is still actively disrupting our democracy.
As covered up with civil and criminal problems as the twice impeached Trump currently is, some political commentators warned that Trump could still run for president. And as of 2024 his leads all republicans campaigning for president.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has been effectively protecting our civil rights and liberties for over 100 years. The ACLU is independent of government. It has been a successful watchdog of the Federal and State governments; the ACLU works to insure government does not trample on our civil rights of us citizens. At one time or another they have sued the majority of the States and presidents. For example, in George W. Bush’s first term, they filed 13 legal actions against him.
The ACLU anticipated Trump’s likely legal assaults on civil rights well before his inauguration. Trump became the first and only president for which the ACLU prepared in advance in case he might win(Cose, 2020). The ACLU reports it has so far filed 400 (yes, that’s 400) legal actions against the Trump administration. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-has-filed-400-legal-actions-against-trump-administration
THE JAN 6th COMMITTEE SEES TRUMP'S ATTEMPTS TO SUBVERT DOJ
What does subvert, subverting or subversion mean? They refer to a systematic attempt to overthrow or undermine a government or part of government by people working from within.All of the specific information from the January 6th Committee under this heading comes from two sources immediately below unless otherwise indicated:
“Pure Insanity: Trump Pushed DOJ to Chase Absurd Conspiracy Theories to Overturn 2020 Election,” by democracynow.org. https://www.democracynow.org/2022/6/24/italygate_conspiracy_theory_italian_contractor_elections
“Top DOJ Staff Threatened Mass Resignations as Trump Weighed Naming Jeff Clark AG to Overturn Election.” By democracynow.org. https://www.democracynow.org/2022/6/24/house_select_committee_capitol_attack_fifth
(1) Toward the end of Trump’s first term as president, at the end of 2019, he learned he might lose the upcoming election. He reacted by publicly sowing doubts about federal election integrity, predicting widespread election fraud, and either saying or strongly implying that if he lost it would be due to an illegitimate election.
(2) Trump loyalists Mark Meadows (Trump’s Whitehouse Chief of Staff), Representative Scott Perry, and lower level Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney Jeffrey Clark (all republican) collaborated on getting Clark in front of Trump to coordinate actions within the DOJ to overturn Biden’s election win.
That politics should be strictly kept separate from the DOJ is a long standing, seriously enforced boundary in American government. The January 6th Committee sworn testimony revealed that Trump and Representative Scott Perry wanted for the low level DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark to use a combination of conspiracy theories to invalidate Biden’s win.
To accomplish this, Trump’s like-minded election deniers were feeding Trump many conspiracy theories which they believed could be used in overturning the election if the DOJ got behind the effort.
Here are a few examples of those conspiracy theories which Jeffrey Clark brought to the Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and the Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue.
· That there was an independent Antrim County hand count of ballots by the Allied Security Operations Group which claimed to find a 68% error rate. But in fact, the actual rate was error rate for ballots counted by machine was only one ballot in 15,000 (an acceptable, very low error rate of .0063%). See much more information on this at: https://www.democracynow.org/2022/624italygate_conspiracy_theory_italian_contractor_elections
· Then that there was an “Italygate” hack. The DOJ Acting AAG and Deputy AGs (Rosen and Donoghue) informed the January 6th Committee of a very complex, bizarre conspiracy theory that was somehow based in Italy. The various parts of this conspiracy reportedly included: an employee in the U.S. Embassy, a defense contractor who hacked a satellite, support from the CIA and M16, and switching votes from Trump to Biden. This information and much more can be found in: https://www.democracynow.org/2022/6/24/italygate_conspiracy_theory_italian_contractor_elections
See several false claims of election fraud and why they were debunked, including the one at State Farm Arena in Georgia, can be found at: https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-afs:Content:9900544617
(3) How the DOJ Acting AG Rosen and Deputy AG Donoghue confronted Trump:
It became clear to DOJ Acting and Deputy AGs (Rosen and Donoghue) that Trump (along with Representative Scott Perry, and Jeffery Clark) were repeatedly presenting conspiracy theories, trying to engage the DOJ in supporting one or more such conspiracy theories-- and to then engage the DOJ in subverting the 2020 election to help Trump’s staying in power.
Then, on December 31st of 2021, the following dramatic series of events occurred—as starkly revealed in the sworn testimony produced from the January 6th Committee:
· Representative Scott Perry sent a 20 minute video about the ItalyGate hack to Mr. Mark Meadows, the Whitehouse Chief of Staff.
· The next day Mr. Meadows sent the ItalyGate Hack to DOJ AAG Rosen, who in turn forwarded it to Deputy AD Donoghue. The FBI investigated the video and the ItalyGate Hack narrative and found it was preposterous; it was regarded as one more debunked conspiracy theory. I appears that the DOJ and FBI sufficiently investigated these conspiracy theories to sufficiently debunk them.
· Mr. Meadows persisted in attempting to get Acting AAG Rosen to meet with the ItalyGate hack video creator, Mr. Johnson. But Acting AG Rosen refused because ItalyGate was preposterous and had been debunked. Mr. Meadows again persisted and asked, “Well, why won’t you meet with him?” And Rosen said, “Because if—if he has real evidence, which this video doesn’t show, he can walk into an FBI field office anywhere in the United States. There’s 55 of them.” Then Mr. Meadows said, “OK.”
Subsequently, on January 3rd of 2022, further dramatic events occurred-- as revealed by the January 6th Committee. There was a very lengthy meeting which eventually included President Trump, AAG Rosen, Deputy AG Donoghue, Mr. Jefferey Clark and a few others:
AAG Rosen testified to the January 6th Committee that President Trump turned to him and said, “Well, one thing we know is you, Rosen, you aren’t going to do anything. You don’t even agree with the claims of election fraud. And this other guy [presumably Jeffrey Clark] at least might do something.” AND THEN, ROSEN SAID, “Well, Mr. President, you’re right that I’m not going to allow the Justice Department to do anything to try to overturn the election. That’s true. But the reason for that is because that’s what’s consistent with the facts and the law, and that’s what’s required under the Constitution. So that’s the right answer and a good thing for the country, and therefore, I submit, it’s the right thing for you, Mr. President.”
And then, President Trump asked what would he have to lose by removing Rosen and replacing him with Jeff Clark.Rosen said President Trump would have a lot to lose, as would the Justice Department, and the whole country. There was some discussion of whether Jeff Clark was qualified to run the Justice Department, and Rosen said Clark was not qualified and provided reasons for this opinion.
Then, when President Trump asked what would happen if he put Jeffrey Clark in the Attorney General’s position, Deputy AG Donoghue said, “Mr. President, I would resign immediately. I’m not working one minute for this guy, who I had just declared was completely incompetent.”
Donoghue went on to add that all the assistant attorney generals in the department would resign: “Your entire department leadership will walk out within hours.” Here is another, easy to read story of what happened and it has a good picture of the oval office where it all took place: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/23/1107217243/former-doj-officials-detail-threatening-resign-en-masse-trump-meeting
CONCLUDING COMMENTS
First of all: There was no significant voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. State and Federal courts dismissed more than 50 lawsuits from Trump or his allies asserting election fraud. Read the whole article, “Fact check: Courts have dismissed multiple lawsuits of alleged electoral fraud presented by Trump campaign” here at: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-courts-election/fact-check-courts-have-dismissed-multiple-lawsuits-of-alleged-electoral-fraud-presented-by-trump-campaign-idUSKBN2AF1G1
Secondly, the January 6 Committee’s investigation produced extremely relevant sworn testimony from Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen and Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue; that testimony described Jeffrey Clark and Representative Scott Perry delivering and/or attempting to deliver to Trump conspiracies theories as causes of election fraud; the election fraud would be [how is not clear] the basis for overturning the 2020 election that Trump lost. Furthermore, Trump was exploring replacing Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, who would be in control of the Department of Justice and likely to cooperate with Trump’s designs to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election.
These two links provide the sworn testimony which documents these events:
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/6/24/italygate_conspiracy_theory_italian_contractor_elections
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/6/24/house_select_committee_capitol_attack_fifth
On January 13, 2021 Trump was impeached for a second time. His charge was incitement of insurrection. Regardless of his wrong doings, his term as president ended a week later.
Any references not found above are on the page BIBLIOGRAPHY/ WORKS CITED in the VotersGettingControl.blogspot.com/ blog.
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