Former President Trump
Donald Trump NYT: Rep. Perry played a role in alleged Trump plan to oust acting AG Arizona GOP, condemns top state Republicans McCain, Flake and Ducey Biden and UK Prime Minister discuss NATO multilateralism on call MORE The Department of Justice (DOJ) reportedly pressed for its attempt to roll back the results of the presidential election all the way to the Supreme Court, but the attempt came to a dead end after opposition from the bureau leadership.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump tried to get the DOJ to file a lawsuit against the election outcome before leaving office last week, but a number of senior officials within the agency declined to bring the matter up. Those officials reportedly include then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, former Attorney General William Barr
Bill BarrBudowsky: Democracy Won, Trump Lost, President Biden Inaugurated Two Thirds Say Elections Were Fair: Poll The Hill’s Morning Report – An Inauguration Like No Other MORE and former Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall.
The effort also met with resistance from former White House adviser Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin, former White House deputy adviser, the Journal noted.
According to the paper, a briefing was once prepared by a lawyer who worked outside the administration for the effort.
“He wanted us, the United States, to sue one or more of the states directly in the Supreme Court,” a former administrative officer told the Journal. The official added that “the pressure got really intense” after the Supreme Court rejected a bid from Texas in early December to overturn President Biden’s election victory.
The Journal reported that Trump was considering impeaching Rosen and replacing him with Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ attorney, after the attempt failed.
The Journal’s report came a day after The New York Times also reported that Trump planned to fire Rosen and replace him with Clark in an attempt to reverse the election results.
However, both papers reported that the attempt failed after several top officials within the department threatened to step down if Trump went ahead with the plan.
In a statement to the Times last week, speaking to four unidentified former Trump administration officials over the reporting, Clark pushed back on the report.
“Senior attorneys at the Justice Department, not uncommon, provide legal advice to the White House as part of our duties,” he told the paper. “All my official communications were in accordance with the law.”
He also pointed to his previous role last month as lead signer of a DOJ request to have a federal court dismiss a lawsuit to pressure then-Vice President Pence to reverse the election outcome as Congress the vote of the electoral college confirmed.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill at the time.