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Trump urged Justice Department officials to declare election 'corrupt'

Trump Justice Department
Posted at 1:31 PM, Jul 30, 2021
and last updated 2021-07-30 13:40:16-04

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump urged senior Justice Department officials to declare the 2020 election results “corrupt” in a December phone call.

That's according to handwritten notes from one of the participants in the conversation. The notes of the Dec. 27 call were released Friday by the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee.

The notes underscore the lengths to which Trump went to overturn the results of the election and to elicit the support of law enforcement officials and other government leaders in that effort.

The notes show that at point, Trump told then-Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to “just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me.”

The notes were taken by Richard Donoghue, who was then Rosen’s deputy and who was also on the call.

The call took place just days after former attorney general attorney general William Barr resigned, leaving Rosen in charge of the DOJ during the turbulent time between the election and inauguration.

That included the events surrounding the riot at the U.S. Capitol as Congress worked to certify Joe Biden's Electoral College win.