DOJ Emails Show Post-Election Pressure from Former President

Documents released by the House Oversight Committee reveal the former President’s efforts to push election fraud claims. This morning, Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee released a stack...


Documents released by the House Oversight Committee reveal the former President’s efforts to push election fraud claims.

This morning, Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee released a stack of 232 pages of emails and assorted documentation detailing the efforts of former US President Donald Trump, along with his chief of staff and others, to pressure the Department of Justice into challenging the results of the 2020 election.

In the emails, Trump pushed disproven election fraud claims through the official White House channels to pressure the DOJ into filing a Supreme Court lawsuit. This hypothetical lawsuit would allege that the Electoral College votes in states where Trump lost should not be counted, and that a “special election” would need to be held. The emails also included conspiracy theories sent by then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, including one such theory that “Italian military satellites” somehow tampered with poll station data.

“These documents show that President Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost,” DOJ Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney said in a statement. “Those who aided or witnessed President Trump’s unlawful actions must answer the Committee’s questions about this attempted subversion of democracy.”