How Trump Tried to Weaponize Department of Justice to Rig 2020 US Election

• How Trump Tried to Weaponize Department of Justice to Rig 2020 US Election

• The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is led by Democrats, reviewed Trump’s behaviour and determined in a recent report that he “grossly abused the power of the presidency.”

EKO HOT BLOG reports that a year after the 2020 presidential election, fresh revelations regarding former President Donald Trump’s extraordinary campaign to reverse the results are still surfacing.

Jeffrey Rosen, deputy attorney general, speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice (DOJ)

Many of Trump’s efforts were carried out in public, including scores of doomed lawsuits and tweets undermining the voting process. However, legislative investigations and press stories have cast new light on what transpired behind the scenes as Trump clung to power.

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Perhaps the most troubling component of Trump’s coup attempt was his continuous attempt to weaponize the Justice Department in order to undermine President Joe Biden’s win. The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is led by Democrats, reviewed Trump’s behaviour and determined in a recent report that he “grossly abused the power of the presidency.”

According to a report by CNN, here’s a big-picture breakdown of the attempted coup, along with Trump’s efforts to co-opt the Justice Department to help his campaign.

CNN and other news outlets predicted Biden’s victory four days after the election. Rather than accepting defeat, Trump immediately began lobbying local, state, and federal officials to reject the results. Many of these authorities dismissed his requests as unethical, unlawful, or unconstitutional. However, several authorities and advisers joined the charge and attempted to assist.

Within weeks, Trump visited with and spoke with election officials from Michigan and Pennsylvania in the hopes of preventing Biden’s victory. Trump fired a senior cybersecurity official at the Department of Homeland Security who publicly debunked his lies about voter fraud. And he cranked up the pressure on the Justice Department, even after Attorney General Bill Barr ordered prosecutors to investigate voter fraud allegations.

He tried — but failed — to stop certification in key states in late November and December. After that, Trump and his allies filed meritless lawsuits across the country seeking to nullify the results.

Trump contacted Pennsylvania lawmakers, pressing them to disregard Biden’s victory and pick GOP electors instead. He contacted Georgia’s governor and urged him to persuade state legislators to do the same. These efforts were likewise futile, and the Electoral College convened on December 14, 2020, to officially confirm Biden’s triumph.

With time running out before the handover of power, Trump got increasingly frantic, even considering declaring martial law.

On January 2, 2021, in a now-famous phone call, Trump appealed with Georgia’s chief election official to “find” enough Republican votes to exceed Biden’s margin. (This phone call is now at the centre of a criminal investigation by state prosecutors in Atlanta.)

Trump and his allies repeatedly urged top Justice Department officials to help them overturn the results — and Trump nearly fired the acting attorney general who refused to do his bidding.

Trump also mounted a private and public effort to pressure Vice President Mike Pence into unconstitutionally nullifying Biden’s win while presiding over the Electoral College process.
The coup attempt reached a horrifying crescendo on January 6, 2021, when Trump held a massive rally near the White House and incited thousands of supporters to attack the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying the Electoral College results. The insurrection was quelled, but it led to five deaths and 140 police officers were injured. Biden was inaugurated two weeks later.

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