MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace said Friday on “Deadline” that a New York Times report detailing former President Donald Trump’s communications with the Justice Department in the days after the 2020 presidential election was a “smoking gun.”
Wallace said, “On December 27, 2020 — just 11 days before his supporters would storm the U.S. Capitol with the stated goal of hanging Mike Pence and disrupting the certification of Joe Biden’s win, Donald Trump engaged in an insurrection of his own, calling the acting attorney general of the United States and directing him to declare the election corrupt and then, ‘leave the rest to me.’ The New York Times reporting on brand-new notes from top DOJ officials now in the hands of congressional investigators, detail for the very first time what reads a whole like a premeditated plan for a conspiracy including members of Congress. Trump signaled who would aid his coup attempt.”
She continued, “The exchange unfolded during a phone call on December 27th in which Trump pressed the acting attorney general at the time, Jeffrey Rosen, and his deputy, Richard Donoghue, on voter fraud claims that the department had disproved. Donoghue warned the department had no power to change the outcome of the election. Trump replied he did not expect that. According to notes, Donoghue took memorializing the conversation. ‘Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and to congressional allies,’ Donoghue wrote in summarizing Trump’s response.”
Wallace added, “Trump did not name the lawmakers but at other points during the call mentioned representative Jim Jordan of Ohio whom he described as a fighter, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who at the time promoted the idea the election was stolen from Trump, and Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin whom Trump praised for getting to the bottom of things. The notes pointing to Trump’s perceived coup accomplices are now in the hands of those members’ peers in the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which is investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat. The extraordinary new window into conversations with top Justice Department officials and the ex-president represents fresh smoking gun evidence of Trump’s abuse of power and frantic efforts to cling to power at all costs. The notes also illuminate a well-worn theme of the Trump presidency, the ex-president’s imperviousness to facts.”
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