High drama as Jan. 6 hearing details Trump's effort to corrupt Justice Department

After detailing an effort by Jeffrey Clark to replace acting attorney general Jeff Rosen in order to help Trump overturn the election, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., turned to former top DOJ lawyer Steven Engel on other efforts by Trump to pressure the department.

After Trump sent a proposed draft lawsuit, done outside the department, to top DOJ attorneys that he wanted to send to the Supreme Court, Engel called it a "meritless lawsuit" and an "unusual request" that the department would never bring.

"Obviously, even the person who drafted this lawsuit didn't really understand in my view the law, and or how the Supreme Court works or the Department of Justice," Engel said.

Trump and the White House also asked the Department of Justice if it could point a special counsel to look at widespread election fraud -- which did not exist -- with Engel detailing why "that was not legally available," before Kinzinger claimed Trump even offered the position of special counsel to campaign attorney Sidney Powell, as his pressure campaign continued.

The committee outlined how Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., played a role in trying to elevate Jeffrey Clark, then an obscure DOJ official, to department leadership amid the resistance from other DOJ officials to Trump's efforts to undermine the election.

Records from the National Archives obtained by the committee showed Perry and Clark met Trump on Dec. 22, 2020. Perry later told a local television news network he had worked with Clark before and "obliged" when asked by Trump to introduce him.

The committee later displayed text messages which showed Perry advising White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to help with Clark's ascension.

"Mark, just checking in as time continues to count down. 11 days to 1/6 and 25 days to inauguration. We gotta get going," Perry wrote to Meadows on Dec. 26, 2020.

The next text, sent 30 minutes later, showed Perry telling Meadows to "call Jeff."

"I just got off the phone with him and he explained to me why the principal deputy won't work especially with the FBI. They will view it as not having the authority to enforce what needs to be done."

Former acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue said he tried to convey to Jeffrey Clark that a draft letter he circulated seeking to ask Georgia's governor and other top state officials to convene the state legislature into a special session to investigate claims of voter fraud -- which didn't exist -- could launch the country into a "constitutional crisis."

"I had to read both emails and the attached letter twice to make sure I really understood what he was proposing -- because it was so extreme to me, I had a hard time getting my head around it initially," he recalled, adding he and former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen had "visceral reactions to it."

"I thought it was very important to get a prompt response rejecting this out of hand. In my response, I explained a number of reasons that this is not the department's rule to suggest or dictate [to] state legislatures," he said.

"More importantly, this was not based on fact. This was actually contrary to the facts as developed by department investigations over the last several weeks and months," he added. "For the department to insert itself into the political process this way, I think, would have had great consequences for the country. It may very well have spiraled into a constitutional crisis -- and I want to make sure that he understood the gravity of the situation because he did not seem to really appreciate it."

Drawing from handwritten notes, then-acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue documented that Trump told him to, "Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen."

When Donoghue told Trump he couldn't change the outcome of the election, he recalled Trump "responded very quickly."

"And said, 'that's not what I'm asking you to do -- I'm just asking you to say it is corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen," Donoghue said.

He also said Trump told him the Justice Department was "obligated to tell people that this was an illegal, corrupt election," despite officials repeatedly telling him no widespread fraud existed and that Biden was the legitimate winner.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger emphasized the gravity of Trump's request.

"'Just say it was corrupt and leave the rest to us,'" he said. "The president wanted the top Justice Department officials to declare that the election was corrupt, even though, as he knew, there was absolutely no evidence to support that statement."