Mr Barr had stepped down in December. But behind the back of acting Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen, the president was planning with Acting Chief of the Civil Division of Justice Jeffrey Clark and a Pennsylvania congressman named Scott Perry to pressure Georgia to invalidate the results, investigate Dominion and a new Supreme Court case challenging the entire election. The plans came to an abrupt halt when Mr. Rosen, allegedly fired under the plan, assured the president that top officials of the department would resign en masse.
That left the conference certification as the main event.
Mr. McConnell had been working for weeks to keep his members in line. In a conference call in mid-December, he had urged them to hold off the two Republican candidates in Georgia and protect them from a difficult position.
When Mr. Hawley came forward, Mr. McConnell hoped to at least keep him isolated, according to Republican senators.
But Mr. Cruz worked conflicting goals, attempting to recruit others to sign a letter outlining his circular logic: because polls showed that Republicans’ “ unprecedented allegations’ ‘of fraud had convinced two-thirds of their party that the Mr. Biden had stolen the election, it was up to Congress to at least delay certification and have a 10-day audit in the “disputed states.” Mr. Cruz, accompanied by 10 other opponents, released the letter on the Saturday after New Year.
Mr. McConnell knew that Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, one of the most conservative Republicans, was planning to come out publicly against the game. Now the majority leader called Mr. Cotton, according to a Republican familiar with the conversation, urged him to do so as soon as possible. Mr. Cotton quickly obeyed.
It amounted to a contest of wills within the Republican Party, and tens of thousands of Trump supporters came to Washington to send a message to those who might defy the president.
The meeting had been re-branded, the March to Save America, and other groups participated, including the Republican Attorneys General Association. Its policy wing, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, promoted the event in a robocall that said, “We will march to the Capitol and call on Congress to stop the stealing,” according to a recording obtained by the progressive research group Documented.