There was almost a Trump coup at DOJ, part of scheme to overthrow election
Trump and a little-known Justice Dept. lawyer secretly plotted with Trump to fire the Acting Attorney General just before his term ended as Trump sought to overturn the election results.
This story is very complicated and I am no lawyer, but wow, sure sounds like a Department of Justice coup was attempted by Trump et al, to 'stop the steal.'
Big New York Times story tonight from reporter Katie Benner: "Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General."
The Justice Department's top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department's power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results.
The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump's continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. Rosen had refused the president's entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.
The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Mr. Rosen is dismissed?
The answer was unanimous. They would resign.
Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Mr. Trump to keep Mr. Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Mr. Trump's decision came only after Mr. Rosen and Mr. Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Mr. Trump's reality show "The Apprentice," albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis.
NYT: Trump and Justice Dept. Lawyer Said to Have Plotted to Oust Acting Attorney General
DMT.NEWS
via https://www.DMT.NEWS
Xeni Jardin, Khareem Sudlow
