Former US President Donald Trump suffered two setbacks on Friday;
When the Justice Department cleared the way for the release of his tax records, it also revealed a memo showing that he urged senior officials last year to "falsely" claim his electoral defeat was "tainted with corruption".
The department cleared the way for the Internal Revenue Agency to turn over the tax records of the Republican businessman-turned-politician to congressional investigators, a move Trump has long fought against.
The handwritten notes - written by Deputy Attorney General Richard Dunneau last December and published by the House Oversight and Reform Committee chairman on Friday - paint a picture of Trump as he aggressively pushes the department to take the unprecedented step of interfering in an attempt to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election. He lost to President Joe Biden.
The Justice Department's allowing handwritten election notes to be handed over to congressional investigators represents a dramatic departure from measures taken during the Trump administration to avoid congressional scrutiny.