The parliamentary inquiry into the assault on the Capitol attacked Thursday, June 23, Donald Trump's "brazen" attempts to push the Department of Justice to support his false allegations of electoral fraud around the presidential election won by Joe Biden .

During this fifth public hearing, the nine elected officials - seven Democrats and two Republicans repudiated by their party - detailed the pressure exerted by Donald Trump on the ministry so that the latter officially declares that the election had been rigged and so that he is launching federal lawsuits parallel to those launched by the president's lawyers.

"Donald Trump didn't just want the Justice Department to investigate. He wanted the Justice Department to help him legitimize his lies and baselessly state that the election was rigged," the Commission Chairman noted, Bennie Thompson.

"Shameless Attempt"

The elected officials returned to the tensions within the ministry in the days preceding January 6, 2021, when the defeated president had faced an internal revolt while trying to install one of his relatives at the head of the institution.

"It was a brazen attempt to use the Justice Department to advance the president's personal political interests," Bennie Thompson added.

Former acting justice minister Jeffrey Rosen said he found himself under intense pressure from Donald Trump, who contacted him almost daily between December 31 and January 3.

"At one point he suggested appointing a special prosecutor for election fraud. On several occasions he asked me to meet with his personal attorney (Rudy) Giuliani," said Jeffrey Rosen.

Former acting deputy minister Richard Donoghue testified that he repeatedly told the former US president that his allegations of voter fraud were unfounded.

Donald Trump simply repeated having won the presidential election.

“The president said, 'Just say the election was rigged and leave the rest in my hands and those of the elected Republicans,' Richard Donoghue said, based on his notes taken during a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. and former acting minister Jeffrey Rosen.

Seeing that the highest officials of the Ministry of Justice refused to bend, the defeated president tried to install one of his relatives at the head of the institution.

Jeffrey Clark, a mid-level civil servant who embraced the theories pushed by the president about a rigged election, was to overrule the department's findings - which had found no evidence of fraud that could have changed the outcome of the November ballot.

"Nonsense"

Jeffrey Clark was also to intervene on behalf of the ministry to refuse to certify the result of the election in the key state of Georgia, where Joe Biden had won with only 12,000 votes in advance.

But Jeffrey Rosen, Richard Donoghue, Steven Engel, a senior ministry official, and Pat Cipollone, a White House lawyer, threatened to resign during a meeting with Donald Trump on January 3, warning that they would take the top federal prosecutors across the country.

"I pointed out that Jeff Clark didn't have the skills to be Attorney General. He's never pleaded a criminal case. He's never conducted a criminal investigation in his life," he said. recounted Richard Donoghue.

The commission of inquiry announced on Wednesday that two additional sessions would take place in July.

The Congress interrupts its work on July 4 for two weeks.

“The commission continues to receive new evidence which is important for the investigation,” explained a parliamentary source.

In particular, she wants to watch hours of film by documentary filmmaker Alex Holder, who had had access to Donald Trump and his relatives before and after January 6.

With AFP

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